Michael Wacha went seven complete innings and gave up only one run in a 2-1 win over the Rays to open the four-game series. He was quite efficient – of those 21 outs in 7 innings, 16 of them were by strikeout (5) or groundout (11, including a double play).
The only truly punished mistake was in the fifth inning. Wacha left a changeup high to Yandy Díaz, who just missed a homer off the left-center field wall. Isaac Collins played the ball off the wall pretty well, but with two outs, the runner on first,
Richie Palacios, ran on contact and scored. That was the first time any Rays runner made it to or past third base the whole game. Indeed, it was actually the *only* time any runner made it to third base and beyond.
John Schreiber gave up a walk in the 8th, but that guy tried to steal second base and was thrown out by 35 feet. Or at least it seemed like it. That was the only threat the Rays mounted against the bullpen. Alex Lange handled the ninth without any sort of event, which was nice for a change.
The Royals offense managed to sequence things just right to squeak out those two runs for the win, because they actually had only four hits to the Rays’ six.
They had a chance to score in the first inning with a Maikel Garcia double off the catwalk. Jac Caglianone just barely missed bringing him in on a foul ball that was about 1 foot to the foul side of the line. Too bad. In the second, Michael Massey led off with a walk. Lane Thomas pulled a liner down the line that was just fair. About as fair as Caglianone’s foul ball. It went deep into the corner, which allowed Massey to beat the throw home for the first run. I think I heard an announcer say the left fielder, Chandler Simpson, had a weak arm. It did not look like a strong throw to the cutoff man. Lane Thomas went all the way to third, but the Royals failed to bring him in. John Rave and Nick Loftin struck out, and Isaac Collins flew out to center field to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, Nick Loftin led off with a single and stole second base. Collins walked. Carter Jensen smoked a line drive up the middle and extended his hitting streak to 13 games. The throw from the center fielder was a bit off-line. Despite the 109mph rocket, Loftin scored because of the off-line throw for the second run. Cags hit a deep fly ball to the center field warning track for the final out and just missed extending his homer streak.
The Royals are now 33-46. The Rays fall to 43-32. They play again tomorrow at the same time, 5:40pm US Central.
