Prior to Thursday afternoon, the 2014 Rays lacked the game ending heroics that only a walk off hit could provide. Sean Rodriguez put an end to that nasty streak with his game ending, three-run shot to left. Apparently walk off wins are akin to a spreading infection now, and we’re all better for it! Low the Rays put together their second consecutive walk off win last night, and all it took was a big pinch hit RBI double to right center off the bat of rookie infielder Cole Figueroa, plating Desmond Jennings from second. The good guys walked out of the Trop after handing those dastardly Red Sox their eighth consecutive loss.
…And it all started with Chris Archer.
It’s safe to say that Archer was good last night, his 6 IP/4 H/0 R/4 BB (1 IBB)/11 K line suggests as much. But, a couple of things stopped him from putting together a truly great outing; namely his propensity to get into deep counts (four walks, 10 three ball counts), and his inability to efficiently put away the Red Sox with two outs — Archer allowed six base runners to reach with two outs. As a result, Archer sat on a high pitch count the whole night.
The fifth inning was particularly tense. Brock Holt led things off with a 1-0 line drive double to right. Archer came back to strike out Xander Bogaerts (looking) on a fastball at the knees, and Dustin Pedroia (swinging) on a slider over the heart of the zone. With 97 pitches under his belt, it seemed as though Archer’s night was over. After all, there was a runner in scoring position, Brad Boxberger was warming in the ‘pen, and Big Papi was making his way into the batter’s box. Instead, Maddon kept Archer in the game and called for an intentional walk of David Ortiz — a move which makes sense on paper, if nothing else (Ortiz has a .388 wOBA against Archer). Napoli, who’s put up a .303 wOBA against Archer, came to the plate and reached for the second pitch he saw — smacking an inning ending, low liner just a step Yunel Escobar’s left.
The running assumption, the fifth inning would be Archer’s last. Yet Joe Maddon sent him back out for the sixth inning with 103 pitches under his belt. Archer responded with a clean 16 pitch frame. Credit where it’s due, the Rays righty was able to make the big pitch when the Red Sox threatened wRISP; striking out Mike Napoli in the first inning, inducing a popper to center out of Brock Holt in the second, and coaxing the aforementioned low liner out of Napoli in the fifth.
John Lackey was just as effective last night, presumably because he pitched with his mouth closed. The Cro-magnon like hurler induced a ton of weak contact, tossing a shutout into the eighth inning. As Ian Malinoski of DRaysBay asserts,
“Archer’s ability to pitch the sixth inning proved crucial, because Maddon, with no room for error, was able to turn the game over to the back-end of the Rays bullpen, bringing Jake McGee in to pitch the seventh, Joel Peralta in for the eighth, and Juan Carlos Oviedo for the ninth. They each responded, with McGee working and Peralta working 1-2-3 innings, and Oviedo pitching around a leadoff single. That set the stage for the heroics in the bottom of the ninth.”
John Farrell played the match-up game instead, putting Tazawa in the game to face Evan Longoria, then replacing him with Brad Miller to get the final two outs of the eighth inning. Miller came back in the ninth and issued a one-out walk to Desmond Jennings, bringing Sean Rodriguez to the plate. Farrell, fearing the mighty presence of SeanRod, pulled Miller in favor of Burke Badenhop. Maddon corresponded by pinching Rodriguez in favor of rookie lefty Cole Figueroa. The Red Sox were very concerned with Jennings at first, and rightly so — he stole second on a pitch out. Badenhop challenged Figueroa with an 0-2 fastball over the heart of the plate, and he smacked it to the right-center gap, giving the Rays their second walk off in as many days.
The New What Next
David Price will attempt to bounce back from a rather meh outing Sunday. He’ll be opposed by the tough righty (at least on Tampa Bay), Jake Peavy. The Rays have been able to tag Peavy with four homers in just over 20 innings of work. You can read about the matchup in our series preview.
Rays 5/24/14 Starting Lineup
DeJesus DH
Longoria 3B
Joyce RF
Loney 1B
Guyer LF
Jennings CF
Forsythe 2B
Escobar SS
Molina C
Price LHP
Noteworthiness
- In the post game interview, Cole Figueroa told Todd Kalas that Evan Longoria gave him a piece of advice prior to his at-bat. Longo noted that Badenhop might try to sneak a fastball in on him if he got ahead in the count 0-2. He went into things looking for that pitch.
- In the ninth inning, with the slow-footed (and blonde highlighted) AJ Pierzynski on first, Shane Victorino laid down a nice bunt down the third base line. Longoria anticipated as much, fielding the bunt quickly and firing the ball to second to get the lead runner.
- Womp womp…Shane Victorino appeared to tweak his hamstring running to first base on the above mentioned play, and was pulled for a pinch runner (Jonny Gomes).
- Starting with the 2008 season, the Rays and Reds have the most walk off wins in the majors, at 60. Next are the Braves at 59, and the Marlins and Dodgers at 58.