On the subject of Thursday night’s 8-3 win, a friend of mine summed up a general affect well, “The sound of a moaning, groaning, and grumbling Yankee Stadium is music to my ears.” In short, the Rays needed a win at Yankee Stadium, and a win they got in spades. Matt Moore collected himself and put together a well needed quality start, while the offense came alive for the second day straight, with Evan Longoria and Yunel Escobar mashing a handful of homers. Tampa Bay will enter Friday night’s match-up just one-and-a-half games behind the third place Yankees, ready to pounce on David Phelps. You can read our witty remarks on the game in real time (deferred by 12 or more hours, of course) at our Tumblr page. Otherwise, it’s time for The Good, The Bad, and The Argyle: A Bulleted Game Summary.
The Good
- Welcome back, Matt Moore! Suffice to say, Matt Moore had three consecutive poor starts prior to his outing Thursday night. But Moore made the proper adjustments after watching video of his previous starts, putting together a solid 6.1 IP/4 H/3 R/3 ER/3 BB/4 K outing. Throwing 99 pitches (66 for strikes) overall, Moore did a good job of keeping the ball down for much of his outing. This isn’t to say he was perfect — his three walks and 59% fastball K% speak to that. But with the exception of a very shaky three run/two walk sixth inning, Moore — typically a fly-ball pitcher — was able to get the Yankees to ground out nine times, keeping them off balance all the while. And to his credit, he was also able to limit the damage in the sixth. Moore’s breakout: 59 fastballs (39 for strikes, one swinging) with an average velocity around 93.6 MPH, 27 sliders (17 for strikes, five swinging), and 13 change-ups (11 for strikes, two swinging).
- Jake McGee and Jamey Wright were again great! McGee and Wright combined for 1-2/3 innings of one hit ball. The one hit: An eighth inning come-backer at Wright’s head, in which Wright was able to slow the ball down with his pitching hand. The incident elicited the response of the Rays medical staff, but Wright was ultimately okay and retired the Yankees in order after, on a strikeout and a pair of ground-outs.
- The Rays were able to put up four or more runs for the second consecutive day. Tampa Bay impressively scored eight runs in the second, third, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, while putting up decent numbers wRISP — they went 4-for-11. In fact, with the exception of designated hitter Jose Molina (Editor’s note: it’s really funny typing that), every Ray had a hand in the 8 R/14 hit/2 BB fun, Thursday night. It all started when Jose Lobaton plated Wil Myers on a sac-fly in the second inning for the first run of the game. Myers initially reached base on a single, and was moved over to third on a Yunel Escobar base hit and an Andy Pettitte wild pitch. Desmond Jennings (3-4, BB) led off the third with a single to right center, consequently moving to second when Brett Gardner slipped on a banana peel in center-field, and couldn’t field the ball properly. Sean Rodriguez (2-5, RBI, R) followed that with a single, moving Jennings to third. Ben Zobrist (2-5, RBI) hit the third single of the inning, plating Jennings and moving Rodriguez to third. Evan Longoria (2-3, 3 RBI, 2 R) capped a two run inning with a sac-fly, giving Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead. Longoria would strike again in the sixth inning, hitting a 368 foot solo shot which put the Rays up by four. In the seventh — after the Yankees cut the lead by three — Rodriguez would strike again, crushing an RBI double to deep left center, and driving in Jennings who reached on a double ahead of him. In the eighth inning, Longo capped his three RBI night with his second solo shot of the game — this time off Joba Chamberlain, while Yunel Escobar crushed a mammoth 416 foot two-run blast to dead center, driving in Matt Joyce who hit a double ahead of him.
- Speaking of Longo, he hit career RBI 500, 501, and 502 Thursday night, becoming one of seven active players to reach that milestone in fewer than 710 games. The other six: Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, Todd Helton, Josh Hamilton, Mark Teixeira. Miguel Cabrera, and Justin Morneau.
- An 8-3 win isn’t too shabby of a way to celebrate the Rays 2,500th game.
- Tampa Bay did not relinquish any two-out runs.
The Bad
- Matt Moore’s three run sixth inning, which included a base hit by former Rays short-stop Reid Brignac.
The Argyle
- I’m a bit indifferent to Kyle Farnsworth’s outing. Sure, he was able to induce the game ending double play. However, he allowed a pair of base runners to reach on a single and a walk. Furthermore, he had a hard time with finding the strike zone — of a total 16 pitches thrown, only eight counted as strikes. I’d imagine that his .167 BABIP may speak volumes for his success in June.
The New What Next
Tampa Bay can come within a half game of the Yankees with a win tonight. Roberto Hernandez will take on David Phelps, and you can read about the pitching match-up here.
Rays 6/21/13 Starting Lineup
Joyce LF
Jennings CF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Myers RF
Scott DH
Molina C
Escobar SS
Hernandez RHP
Noteworthiness