(Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Times)
(Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Times)

A little more than 24-hours after a tough ninth inning defeat, the Tampa Bay Rays began an eight-game road trip with their biggest offensive output of the season. The Rays scored nine combined runs in the front four innings, en route to a 13-2 shellacking of the Toronto Blue Jays.


Source: FanGraphs

Tampa Bay took a 2-0 lead in the first inning against left-hander J.A. Happ, who had thrown seven consecutive quality starts to begin the season. In his first Major League at-bat, utility player Taylor Motter reached with one out on an infield hit that was just wide of first. Motter became the 17th Ray to record a hit in his first plate appearance.

Two batters later, Steve Pearce launched a two-run shot to left, his sixth of the year. The Lakeland Launcher has now collected four homers in 25 at-bats against Happ. The Rays were far from done; their lead was extended to 5-0 in the second inning. Mired in an ugly 1-36 stretch, Desmond Jennings hit a ball through the middle to start the rally. Curt Casali followed with a hard hit double to left, putting runners into scoring position for Kevin Kiermaier. The Outlaw hit a sacrifice-fly for a 3-0 lead, before Tim Beckham hit a two-run homer to center, his first of the season.

 

The good guys chased Happ in the third inning after the lefty allowed an Evan Longoria single, a Pearce walk, and a Steven Souza Jr. RBI base hit to right. Casali welcomed reliever Dustin Antolin by hammering a three-run homer to left, putting Tampa Bay up by nine.

The Rays still weren’t done. Jennings came up with a two-run double to left-center, giving Tampa Bay its second double-digit output of the season. Pearce then singled in another run in the eighth, before Jennings homered in the ninth to cap the scoring for Tampa Bay.

 

Each Ray had at least one hit.

The offensive outburst was more than enough to mask the uneven start by Drew Smyly, who allowed a run on four hits while striking out six and walking four through five innings of work. Some how, and in some way, Smyly was able to be effective despite getting into 10 three-ball counts in the first 3-1/3 innings, and throwing just 59 of his 101 total pitches for strikes.

Toronto had an opportunity to strike early against Smyly, after he picked up the first two outs with ease. The Rays southpaw walked three straight and loaded up the bases for Troy Tulowtizki in the bottom half of the first inning. But Tulowtizki struck out on six pitches, and Smyly left the inning unscathed despite throwing 32 pitches.

Overall, Drew’s strike zone plot did not look like that of someone who only relinquished a run.

location.php

However, Smyly was able to find the zone when he needed to record an out.

location-1.php

Steve Geltz took over in the sixth and threw a perfect frame. Ryan Webb worked a scoreless seventh, before Dana Eveland gave up a run in the eighth. Enny Romero took over in the ninth, and though he allowed a hit, the flame-throwing lefty was able to close out the game on 11 pitches (six strikes) ― collecting a double play and a fly ball to put the Jays out of their misery.

The New What Next

Chris Archer will toe the rubber opposite of Marcus Stroman on Tuesday. Archer is coming off a no-decision in Seattle that included 33-pitch, three-walk first inning on Wednesday. The ace is 2-0 with a 2.28 ERA in his past four starts. Prior to that, he was 0-4 with a 7.32 ERA in first four, and is 5-4 with a 3.26 ERA in 17 starts against Toronto. Stroman has no-decisions in his past two starts, but beat Rays twice this season. He is 3-1 with a 3.67 ERA overall in four starts against Tampa Bay. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.

Rays 5/17/16 Starting Lineup

Guyer LF
Miller SS
Longoria 3B
Pearce 2B
Souza RF
Dickerson DH
Morrison 1B
Kiermaier CF
Casali C
Archer RHP

Noteworthiness

— The Rays scored a season high 13 runs on 16 hits. Equally as impressive, however, the went 6-12 wRISP and plated five two-out runs.

— Jennings had one hit since April 22 and three Monday night. The secret?

I don’t want it to sound crazy, I just didn’t try as hard.

— Quote of the day, courtesy of Taylor Motter:

The hair’s my thing. I’m trying to make a statement with that.

 — The Rays have Steve Pearce at cleanup tonight, Corey Dickerson hitting sixth, and three straight left-handed hitters batting 6-7-8.

Leave a comment