Nathan Karns started the game and battled through 4-2/3 innings of inefficient ball. The wheels came off in the fifth when Karns loaded the bases with two outs on a pair of walks and an infield hit. Manager Kevin Cash pulled Karns in favor of RHP Brandon Gomes.
Gomes walked Brett Gardner to force home the game’s first run. As Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) noted, it was the first of nine inherited runners that Gomes had allowed to score. Karns’ final line: 4.2 IP/3 H/1 ER/2 BB/5 K, throwing only six of 19 first-pitch strikes.
Knotted at one, Brandon Gomes — who was pitching for the fifth time in nine days — gave up a well struck solo shot to Brian McCann to right field, before the offensively strapped Carlos Beltran followed with a double off the wall in center. Gomes struck out Chris Young before Cash called upon LHP Everett Teaford to face Stephen Drew and keep the Rays in the game. He was not successful.
Teaford quickly gave up a run double to Drew, giving the Yankees an insurance run. New York tacked a final run with two-outs in the eighth inning, when Jacoby Ellsbury drove in a run on a bases loaded hit by pitch.
Gomes wasn’t pleased with his outing:
It was the first time all year, including spring training and when I was down at Triple-A, that I felt I didn’t throw the ball well.
Tampa Bay tied the game in the top of the sixth against Adam Warren when David DeJesus singled to center, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Steven Souza Jr. moved DeJesus to third on a sac-fly to center field. With the infield in, DeJesus made a great slide around McCann, scoring the tying run on Asdrubal Cabrera’s grounder to second. The Rays tallied six total hits, two by Evan Longoria who’s now 9 for-his-last 11.
The New What Next
Jake Odorizzi will make his fifth start of the season Tuesday nigh against Chase Whitley. Odorizzi has pitched into the seventh inning in all four previous outings. Whitley was called up from Triple-A to make a spot start, giving Masahiro Tanaka five days of rest before his next outing Wednesday. You can read about the pitching match-up in our series preview.
Rays 4/28/15 Starting Lineup
DeJesus LF
Souza Jr. RF
Cabrera SS
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Forsythe 2B
Kiermaier CF
Beckham DH
Rivera C
Odorizzi RHP
Noteworthiness
— Desmond Jennings is listed as day-to-day because of left knee bursitis. He said this is not an injury that would require a stint on the disabled list. It should be noted, he was dressed and ready to pinch hit Monday night. Alex Colome (pneumonia) should return this weekend.
— The Rays had brief meeting to update the players on the situation in Baltimore. The team will come home this weekend to face the Orioles rather than play in Baltimore. The Orioles will be the home team at Tropicana Field, and the Rays will not shift any previously scheduled home series to Baltimore. Details on game times and ticket information is expected shortly.
Evan Longoria lauded the move as necessary, saying,
It’s different but it’s the right move … The circumstances call for extreme measures.
The decision to play at Tropicana as opposed to in Washington or Philadelphia was a mutual one — both teams felt it was better than playing at a neutral site. The Orioles will get revenues from the games and will be responsible for any expenses, therefore they will keep 100% of the ticket revenue.
Tampa Bay wIll wear gray uniforms, while the Orioles will wear white at the Trop. Other details are being worked out, but a “generic” presentation should be expected, i.e. no usual Rays promos or in game stuff. The soon to be activated Alex Colome will get the start Friday, and will be followed by Chris Archer and Nathan Karns.
On an unrelated side note, Orioles COO John Angelos offered some perspective on the protests in Baltimore, in response to a morning sports radio host:
Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.
That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.
The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importances of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.
— The Rays have added LHP Xavier Cedeño to the active roster. LHP Everett Teaford has been designated for assignment.
— It turns out that Rays LHP Drew Smyly was on the Kelly and Michael show Tuesday morning:
Had a blast @KellyandMichael show today! #Nyc pic.twitter.com/OjzniMhkN8
— Drew Smyly (@SmylyD) April 28, 2015