Think back to last weekend, when Tampa Bay was crushed by Max Scherzer and the Detroit Tigers. There was a tacit line of thought that the Rays would need to prove they could bounce back from the loss, if they were going to make a realistic push going forward. They inevitably took three consecutive games, and the series, from the Tigers. And similar to last week, the Rays were able to bounce back from a tough loss, taking the second game of the series from the Royals by a score of 4-3. It was a gritty victory against a very tough Jason Vargas, but Tampa Bay, led Brandon Guyer and Brad Boxberger, proved its mettle Tuesday night.
Making his first start of the season, Jeremy Hellickson started off the game poorly, but he was able to work around base runners (three singles and a walk) in the front four innings. Lorenzo Cain led off the game by grounding a fastball just out of the reach of Logan Forsythe. We heard that Hellickson had issues with his secondary pitches — namely his curve ball — in his rehab stint, and those issues creeped up after he got Eric Hosmer to fly out to center for the first out of the inning. Helly started Salvador Perez with a hanging curve which he hit hard. Thankfully (or luckily, choose your own adventure) it died a few steps short of the warning track in center. He left another hanger over the plate to Alex Gordon which resulted in a single, putting runners at the corners. But Hellickson was able to escape danger by coaxing his third fly ball of the inning.
Hellickson’s command — particularly of his secondary pitches — improved as the game wore on.
As Ian Malinowski (of DraysBay) noted,
The first two pitches were poorly located fastballs, but behind in the count, he came over the plate with a pretty hittable fastball up and away. Perez took it for a strike, and likely immediately regretted doing so. He wasn’t going to passively watch the next pitch he got to hit, so Hellickson took advantage of that aggressiveness with the best pitch he threw all night, a changeup at the bottom of the zone. Now, with the batter’s eye level set down in the zone, Helly challenged his hands at the top inside corner. Perez fouled it off. The next pitch (#6), was a curve below the zone on the outside. Once more, Perez was set up for the pitch, and he really had no business making contact, yet somehow he did. Three more fastballs (two fouled, one taken well-inside for a ball) had Perez set up once more, and he was put away with swinging at a change up behind the zone.
But Hellickson didn’t make it out of the fifth inning for whatever reason. You can blame it on a relatively high pitch count in his first outing of the year, or you could blame it on Helly-being-Helly and things looking as though they were about to spiral out of control in the fifth. Whatever the case, Hellickson gave up a one-out single, and then saw the runner (Lorenzo Cain) advance to second on a wild pitch that Ryan Hanigan should have blocked. His night was done after Eric Hosmer singled Cain to third. Joe Maddon pulled Hellickson in favor of Brad Boxberger. The Rays conceded a run on a soft chopper to short off the bat of Perez, and Boxberger was able to limit the damage and end the inning with a strikeout of Alex Gordon.
The next inning would prove huge for Boxberger. The Rays reliever gave up a leadoff single to Omar Infante, then immediately erased him on a beautifully executed third-to-second-to-first, Mike Moustakas double play. He was then able to induce a fly-ball to center out of Billy Butler to end the inning with the Rays down by one.
It’s been pretty well documented by now that the Rays have excelled at the plate in the sixth inning. Consider this: Tampa Bay has slashed a combined .285 BA/.356 OBP/.421 SLG/.777 OPS with 43 runs in the sixth inning alone. Tuesday night would be no different.
Ben Zobrist led off the inning with a single, then Brandon Guyer followed with a hustle double to left-center — challenging Alex Gordon’s arm, and advancing Zobrist to third. Evan Longoria finally put the Rays on the board with a two-RBI, opposite field single.
Guyer once again came up big when he led off the eighth with an excellent, well executed bunt base hit. His speed and tenacity on the base paths paid dividends when Longo grounded into a potential double play; Guyer beat the throw to second, and Longoria safely reached first to put two on with no-outs. James Loney was next, following with an RBI double (moving Longoria to third) and Logan Forsythe plated the fourth run of the game with a sac-fly to right. Those two runs proved valuable because Jake McGee gave up two en route to a four out save.
The New What Next
Alex Cobb will take on the power arm of Yordano Ventura in the series finale. A win would give Tampa Bay their fourth consecutive series win. It won’t be easy. Ventura is a power pitcher whose fastball sits in the 94-97 range. His fastball/curve ball combination is downright deadly, and his change up has really come into its own. Recall, Yordano owned Tampa Bay back in April, to the tune of six strikeouts in a 6 IP, shutout start. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview, and I’ll pst the starting lineup when it becomes available.
Rays 7/9/14 Starting Lineup
Jennings CF
Zobrist SS
Joyce DH
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Guyer LF
Rodriguez 2B
Molina C
Kiermaier RF
Cobb RHP
Noteworthiness
- Yunel Escobar his first rehab start at shortstop Tuesday with Class-A Charlotte. Facing two-time All-Star RHP Brad Penny, Escobar finished 1-for-4 and scored a run.
- David DeJesus is getting closer and could return early next month, while Wil Myers (wrist) could be back by mid August to give a jolt to a team still trying to become a factor in September.
- Interesting. Marc Topkin wrote, “(Alex) Cobb could be available out of the bullpen Sunday against Toronto in the Rays’ final game before the break.”
- Fangraphs put together a pretty interesting article on the recent (relatively speaking) suckage that is Josh Hamilton. Once considered to be one of the premier power hitters in baseball, Hamilton’s power has been negated because pitchers refuse to throw him fastballs. In kind, because he pathologically sits fastball, he’s become as threatening as Jose Molina.