What the Tampa Bay Rays lacked in offense Monday night, they made up for with an excellent effort by the pitching staff. The Rays were able to extend their scoreless streak to 23 innings after a 1-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Tampa Bay is now 4-0 against Kansas City this season.
Hunter Wood opened the game and got the first five outs, striking out two while allowing a pair of second-inning hits. With two on and two outs, Rays skipper Kevin Cash called for the southpaw, Ryan Yarbrough, to face the left-handed hitting Seminole High product, Brett Phillips. Yarbrough fell behind Phillips before he came back to collect a caught looking strikeout to end the threat. The left-hander ran into just one jam in the fourth inning.
Salvador Perez led off the frame with a double into the right-field corner before former Ray Lucas Duda walked. Yarbrough, however, rebounded and struck out the next three batters — Jorge Bonifacio, Ryan O’Hearn, and Rosell Herrera — in order to end the inning.
All told Yarbrough worked 5-1/3 innings and allowed two hits and one walk on 73 pitches (51 strikes, 70% strike rate, 16/19 first-pitch strikes). The scoreless appearance allowed him to further lower his ERA to a sub-four 3.84.
Ryne Stanek followed Yarbrough in the eighth inning and while he allowed a pair of one-out singles (to Whit Merrifield and Alex Gordon) to put the go-ahead runner aboard, Stanek coaxed a check-swing 4-3 double play out of Perez to end the threat.
Jose Alvarado got the opportunity to earn his fifth save in the ninth inning, allowing just a walk to Bonifacio.
On the offensive side of things, Tampa Bay took the lead and scored the game’s only run against rookie starter Jorge López in the second inning. Ji-Man Choi kick-started the rally with a one-out bunt hit against the shift.
*sees shift*
cool, thanks. pic.twitter.com/4jEh922VED
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) August 21, 2018
Yet Joey Wendle was robbed of a hit by Duda, who retired the lead runner on a 3-6 fielder’s choice. Be that as it may, Kevin Kiermaier singled to right, putting runners at the corners before Willy Adames hit a slow roller to third. The play was initially was ruled an out, but Cash asked for it to be reviewed, and the play was subsequently overturned, putting the Rays up by one.
As Dave and Andy (on the radio side) would say, the Rays left a lot of chicken on the bone. They had chances to add to their lead against Lopez in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but they couldn’t take advantage of leadoff baserunners — ultimately going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
To their credit though, they did score a run when it counted the most, and Kevin Kiermaier was able to collect three hits, while Choi and Mallex Smith each reached base three times.
The New What Next
Blake Snell (14-5, 2.10 ERA) will get the start for the Rays Tuesday night, pitching opposite of right-hander Glenn Sparkman (0-1, 4.95 ERA).
Blake Snell tossed five scoreless frames and earned the victory against the Yankees, allowing just two hits and a walk while fanning six batters. Snell is now 2-0 in three starts since returning from the DL with a shoulder injury. During those three outings, the southpaw has allowed just one run across 14 innings with a nice 5/1 K/BB. Snell was on a pitch count Thursday and ended his start with 76 pitches, a big increase from the 47 he threw in his last appearance. His leash should be extended Tuesday.
Glenn Sparkman allowed two runs on four hits and a walk over four innings work on Thursday. He struck out three. Sparkman typically would have gone out for the fifth inning, but Thursday was the first time he reached the 75-pitch mark since a start for Triple-A Omaha on July 3. The 26-year-old has a 4.95 ERA and 1.55 WHIP over 20 innings with Kansas City this season. He has relied primarily on a 95 mph four-seam fastball and an 87 mph 12/6 slider with surprisingly little depth, while also mixing in a firm 86 mph changeup with a ton of backspin.
Rays 8/21/18 Starting Lineup
Smith RF
Pham LF
Wendle 3B
Cron DH
Bauers 1B
Kiermaier CF
Adames SS
Lowe 2B
Perez C
Snell LHP
You can read about the series in our preview.
The New What Next: Rays vs Royals part two — a series preview
Noteworthiness
— LHP Vidal Nuno (strained right hamstring) will make his second rehab start Tuesday night with the Class-A Charlotte Stone Crabs and should be back in September.
— UTL Daniel Robertson is reportedly eyeing a return from surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb before the end of the season. The surgery went well and he has no pain. Robertson hasn’t given up on getting at-bats during the final days of the season, saying:
I think that (the Rays are) on board as well. With that being said, I don’t think there’s going to be any rushing in the process. The goal is to still, hopefully, get some more at-bats this year, whether that’s with a week left in the season or not. That’s just the mentality. I’m going to come in here and do everything I can to get to that point.
— Catcher Jesus Sucre fought through soreness and pain to get behind the plate on Sunday, giving rookie backstop Michael Perez a much-needed break. The Rays manager said they will “probably give (Sucre) another day or two before we get him back in the mix of things.”