41,000+ people showed up for selfie stick night at Angels Stadium on Friday. FML. (Photo Credit: Chelsea Haller)
41,253 people showed up for selfie stick night at Angels Stadium on Friday. FML. (Photo Credit: Chelsea Haller)
For a third consecutive outing, Tampa Bay Rays ace Chris Archer put together a quality start, blanking the Angels over six innings en route to a 5-2 victory over Los Angeles late Friday night.

Tampa Bay scored four early runs in the first, and another in the third, yet ― despite plenty of opportunities ― no more. The early rally came against Cory Rasmus, who made a spot start after Angels ace Garrett Richards was diagnosed with a UCL tear in his right elbow.

Logan Forsythe ripped a double to center-field, over the head of Mike Trout, on the first pitch of the game. Forsythe promptly became a pest on the base paths, taking big leads and generally getting into Rasmus’ head. The activity paid dividends, resulting in a balk that moved Logan to third. That mattered, as Evan Longoria hit a sacrifice-fly to the warning track in left to score Forsythe for the game’s first run.

Tampa Bay piled it on from there. Steve Pearce singled down the third base line, Steven Souza Jr. accepted a five pitch walk, and Corey Dickerson pulled an 0-2, inside pitch into the right-field stands for his sixth homer of the season.

Rays up, 4-0.

In the third inning, Brad Miller lined a solo shot into the hedges in center field, extending the lead to 5-0 over Rasmus and the Angels.

Against Mike Trout and the Angels, there’s a natural desire to put more runs on the board. And while the Rays attempted to do just that, they went 2-for-10 wRISP the rest of the way. They mounted an incredible scoring threat following Miller’s homer, yet with the bases loaded and two outs, Kevin Kiermaier grounded out to second.

Another opportunity presented itself in the fourth inning after Curt Casali, Forsythe and Miller hit back-to-back-to-back singles, loading the bases with no outs. But Javy Guerra (in relief of Jose Alvarez) struck out Longoria, coaxed a shallow popper out of Pearce and fanned Souza. Longoria’s strikeout looked egregiously horrible, swinging at three pitches that were well out of the zone without forcing a single strike out of Guerra.

Archer worked six scoreless innings in the meantime, with the ace walking two and striking out six, while scattering five hits. That’s not to say he was the Archer of last season, not by any stretch of the imagination. His control lapsed in spots, and he also left a handful of sliders up in the zone which he somehow wasn’t punished for.

Still Archer was at his best in key spots, collecting three strikeouts and holding Los Angeles to 0-5 wRISP thanks to some tight sliders ― that forced some chases from the Angels batters ― and some decent changeups. Archer now has given up just two runs in his last three starts, spanning 19-2/3 innings.

Credit where it’s due, the Angels bullpen held the Rays scoreless from the third inning on, allowing them to make things interesting late.

Steve Geltz started the seventh and quickly coaxed a fly-ball for the first out of the inning. Yet Geltz walked the .150 hitting Roberto Perez after getting ahead 0-2. Cliff Pennington followed with a single to right, and after former Ray Yunel Escobar went down swinging, Daniel Nava was hit by a pitch, consequently loading the bases. Two good low fastballs allowed Geltz to get ahead of Trout, however, the righty nibbled at the zone and walked the outfielder to force home a run. Kevin Cash had seen enough and called upon Erasmo Ramirez, who got Albert Pujols to line to Souza at the wall in right on just one pitch, ending the threat. Ramirez has now stranded 13 of 14 inherited runners.

Ramirez stayed on to pitch the eighth inning, and gave up a run on a pair of hits: a double to Kole Calhoun that Souza couldn’t hang onto, and a single up the middle Andrelton Simmons. Everyday Erasmo got the next two batters to keep Tampa Bay ahead by three after eight.

Alex Colome closed out the game in dominating fashion, earning his seventh save of the season. His appearance was punctuated by a five pitch strikeout of Trout on a filthy, sweeping slider.

numlocation.php

The New What Next

Jake Odorizzi will get the ball for the seventh time this season, opposite of Jered Weaver. Odorizzi has five no-decisions in six starts, and gave up just one run in seven innings in his last start against Toronto. The right-hander is 0-2 in both of his starts against Los Angeles, though he didn’t face them last season. Weaver (3-1, 5.40 ERA) has seen his velocity plummet to all-time lows, averaging just 81.9 mph on his fastball. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.

Rays 4/7/16 Starting Lineup

Forsythe 2B
Miller SS
Longoria 3B
Dickerson DH
Souza RF
Morrison 1B
Jennings LF
Kiermaier CF
Conger C
Odorizzi RHP

Noteworthiness

— Tampa Bay is doing much of its damage with the home run, and with two out rallies, writes Neil Solondz (Rays Radio). Last night, the Rays scored four of five runs via the homer.  Tampa Bay has scored 51 of 95 runs (53.7%) on homers, and have hit 36 in the first 27 games.  The Rays also scored three more two-out runs, and a total 54 two-out runs this season (56.8%).

— Two excellent observations of last night’s game by Ian Malinowski (DRaysBay):

  1. In the fifth inning, Brandon Guyer, the master of getting hit by pitches, was hit by a pitch. This one was totally legit, though. It was wild, up and in. Guyer shielded his face with his arm as he tried to hit the deck, and the pitch got him squarely in the triceps. Later on, Guyer was hit by another pitch. The second HBP was a Guyer special, where he made no attempt to get his arm out of the way.
  2. In the top of the seventh, Souza hit a double. Good. Then, a pitch went into the dirt. It bounced a few feet away from the catcher, Perez, who seemed to not be able to find it. He may or may not have been baiting Souza, and when Souza, after waiting a beat, took another couple steps off the bag, Perez found the ball in a hurry and caught Souza in no man’s land. Souza eventually decided to go for third. The throw was there, but Souza’s slide beat the tag. That is, until he slid off the other side of the base. The Rays challenged, but the out call was upheld. As Souza trotted back to the dugout, Cash gave him an extremely cold look. Not pleased.

— Brad Miller collected four total hits last night. Since moving to the two-hole on April 26, Miller has collected three runs and two RBI on nine hits, while striking out just once.

— With their five runs last night, Tampa Bay has now scored at least four runs in four of the last five games.

Leave a comment