It was an impressive showing for the Rays offense last night, as Junior Caminero’s two homers and Jonathan Aranda’s four hits led the way to a 13-9 victory.
But tonight it was all about the brand new battery, as trade deadline acquisitions Freddy Peralta and and Liam Hicks both made their Rays debuts at pitcher and catcher, respectively. On the other side it was Gabriel Hughes, with just four major league starts under his belt coming into tonight.
Peralta got into some trouble immediately, giving up
two hits out of the gate in the bottom of the first, but a double play and a strikeout on an elevated heater to catcher Hunter Goodman limited the damage to just one run. Whether is was just nerves or not to start the game, he recovered nicely to pitch a clean second.
Things were quiet until the top of the third when Cedric Mullins opened the Rays offense with the team’s first hit of the night. After a Richie Palacios walk and a Taylor Walls bunt single, the bases were loaded with no outs. Hughes promptly struck out Yandy Diaz, but Aranda followed up with a game tying walk. Caminero gifted Hughes another strikeout, and it looked like Hughes was going to get out of it.
Until newcomer Hicks delivered the big blow:
Not only was it the first grand slam of Hicks’ young career, it was the first for the Rays this season.
Unfortunately though, the Rays couldn’t quite coast after that, as the Rockies came roaring back in the bottom half. Jordan Beck led off the inning with a triple off the top of the right field wall. Ezequiel Tovar drove in the Rockies’ second run and two batters later, they delivered a big blow of their own:
And that wouldn’t be all, as the Rockies scored two more in the fourth from a two run homer off the bat of Willi Castro for six unanswered runs. Peralta wouldn’t finish the inning. To put it nicely, it was not a good debut for the Rays’ shiny new starter.
Hughes, on the other hand, settled in nicely after the grand slam, retiring the next 7 batters he faced. For the Rays, it was Cam Booser who was tasked with keeping the deficit at two, and did so for the next one-and-a-third innings. Casey Legumina held the Rockies down for the next two.
Despite having two on in the sixth, seventh and eighth, the Rays were unable to score, as Brennan Bernardino, Parker Mushinski and Juan Mejia held the Rays scoreless. But it was old foe Jordan Romano who would cough up the lead in the ninth, as an Aranda single drove in two, tying things up at seven.
Steven Matz came back out for the bottom of the ninth after pitching a clean eighth when Kevin Kelly came in to finish the frame. After fielding a few comebackers, they were on to extras!
The Rays pulled ahead in the 11th after Walls’ second bunt of the day (third attempt) moved auto-runner Ben Williamson to third. A wild pitch from Nick Frasso brought him in. Diaz broke out of his slump to inside out a double off of the right-center wall, then Caminero added a much needed insurance run on a ground ball single to center. Closer Bryan Baker came in to seal the victory in the ninth, recording his 32nd save of the season.
The story was the bullpen for the Rays, as they allowed only three baserunners in five-and-two-thirds innings. Hicks said it best in his post game interview when he described the unit as ‘A Bunch Of Nasty Guys.’
The Rays will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon as Nick Martinez takes the ball opposite Tomoyuki Sugano for a 3:10 PM eastern start time.
