After dropping a 4-3 nail biter on Friday, the Tampa Bay Rays tagged Mets’ starter Noah Syndergaard for four runs in the first inning of Saturday’s contest, overcoming an early 3-0 deficit, and going on to defeat New York by a 5-4 margin. Tampa Bay snapped the Mets’ seven-game win streak, as four relievers combined to throw four innings of no hit ball. Blessed by a pair of Angels and Twins losses, the Rays start the day four games out in Wildcard race.
The Mets’ hitters ambushed starter Nathan Karns early, resulting in a three-run, four-hit first inning. The first four batters — Curtis Granderson, Daniel Murphy, Yoenis Cespedes, and Lucas Duda — provided Syndergaard with a sizable lead after tagging Karns for a solo shot, two doubles and a single in the top of the frame. But the Rays hurler eventually settled down and retired the next three batters in order.
Down but not out, Tampa Bay answered in the bottom half against Syndergaard. John Jaso drilled a ground rule double that bounced over the wall in center field, and Grady Sizemore followed with a long two-run blast to right — his second in as many days — to cut the deficit to one.
Consecutive nights with Grady homers. This one sparked the #Rays in the first. #RaysUp WATCH: http://t.co/I50SbDiES1 pic.twitter.com/SXex8lXdTs
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) August 8, 2015
Then with one out, James Loney singled, and after Logan Forsythe flew out to center, Asdrubal Cabrera, Daniel Nava and Kevin Kiermaier hit back-to-back-to-back base hits, with the latter scoring two runs for a one run Rays advantage. While Kiermaier was able advance to second on the throw, The Outlaw jammed his right thumb on a slide while doing so. He was down several minutes and required attention from Ron Porterfield, the head athletic trainer. Kiermaier, thankfully, was able to stay in the game, although he was seen applying ice and salves to his thumb in between innings to keep the swelling down.
Following the game, Cash sounded concerned for Kiermaier, saying:
To his credit he kind of gutted it out and stayed in there because it definitely wasn’t feeling good. Hopefully with some ice he’ll bounce back and be okay.
Curtis Granderson tied the game at four in the second with a two-out homer off Karns — the second of the game for Granderson, and his 19th of the year. Yet Karn pitched scoreless baseball the next three innings, working around base runners in each. Karns got a little bit of defensive help from Longoria and Cabrera in the third, as they kept Michael Conforto’s two-out infield single from getting to the outfield with Lucas Duda at second.
The score remained even until the fourth when John Jaso worked a one out walk. He swiped second before being wild pitched to third. With two outs, Longoria beat out an infield single which plated the run, giving Tampa Bay a one run lead it would never relinquish.
Xavier Cedeno entered in relief of Karns and worked a clean frame, fanning three batters with one (former Ray Kelly Johnson) reaching on a wild pitch. Cedeno’s pitch was a filthy, sweeping breaking pitch in the dirt that Rivera just couldn’t hold on to.
Steve Geltz pitched the first 1-2-3 inning of the night in the seventh, and Jake McGee followed in eighth by striking out the side in the eighth.
Brad Boxberger bounced back from his tough outing on Friday by putting together a perfect 11 pitch ninth for his 28th save in 31 chances.
…About That Strike Zone
Home plate umpire Tim Welke left a lot of people guessing with his strike zone last night. He called a good number of well executed borderline pitches as balls, only to call a fare share of pitches well outside the zone as strikes.
Looking at his strike zone plots (below), I’m still confused! Here’s how to decipher the plots: green dots are balls, while red dots are strikes. Though it’s hard to delineate whiffs from caught looking strikes, take a look at the number of green dots in the middle (or on the border) of the zone. At least Welke was consistently inconsistent with his terrible calls!
The New What Next
All-Star Chris Archer (10-8, 2.54) will get take the mound on Sunday, opposite of Bartolo Colon (10-10, 4.72 ERA). Archer is 3-6 with a 2.74 ERA in 13 home starts this season. Colon (10-10, 4.72 ERA) will be facing the Rays for the first time since 2012. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 8/9/15 Starting Lineup
Jaso LF
Sizemore RF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Forsythe 2B
Cabrera SS
Shaffer DH
Guyer CF
Rivera C
Archer RHP
Noteworthiness
— Neither Kiermaier nor Casali are in today’s lineup following their respective injuries from the night before. Perhaps they are getting a couple of days to get better with the off-day tomorrow.
— According to Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times), the Rays locked up pitching coach Jim Hickey for another year of service. Topkin wrote,
Pitching coach Jim Hickey — who would be a hot commodity as a free agent — is signed for next season, as is most of the staff except for 1B coach Rocco Baldelli, who opted for a one-year deal in his first stint.
— Topkin also wrote that more than a few players, not just Chris Archer, were disappointed by the front office’s trade deadline decisions:
More than a few players were disappointed with their bosses’ actions at the trade deadline, both for not adding and for trading away veteran RHP Kevin Jepsen (to the Twins) and OF David DeJesus (to the Angels) for prospects, and especially to teams the Rays might be battling for a playoff spot. Relievers Brad Boxberger and Jake McGee made their point by getting a blowup doll that they dressed in Jepsen’s No. 40 uniform, added an image of his face and kept it in the clubhouse in Chicago. Several Rays posed for pictures with the doll and sent them to Jepsen.