The bad news? The Rays lost again. The good news? Well, it didn’t matter and they leave the Bronx healthy with three games remaining in the regular season. At the end of the day, what really matters at this point in the season is that the Rays stay healthy and rest up for October.
On Thursday night, they did just that and held a four-run lead entering the bottom of the sixth inning. Then, the Jake Woodford entered the game and it was downhill from there. In return, the Rays used none of their high
leverage arms and got them some much needed rest. This is the benefit of clinching the East and the top seed in the playoffs five games to go.
Facing soon-to-be AL Cy Young award winner Cam Schlitter, the Rays jumped out to an early lead in the third inning, scoring a pair of runs on singles from Yandy Diaz and Junior Caminero. Walls crossed the plate first, scoring from first on a throwing error by outfielder Heliot Ramos. Yandy later scored on the single by Caminero.
Schlitter only went three innings as the Yankees looked to get him some rest as well and line him up for the Wildcard series. Michael Fulmer followed and the Rays tagged him for another run in the fifth inning. Again, Caminero singled home Yandy.
In the sixth inning the Rays added on again the following inning when Vilade scored on a groundout by Liam Hicks.
After five scoreless innings from Ian Seymour, the Rays B-Bullpen took over and the rest is history. So, lets focus on Seymour for a second. Over five innings, he allowed just one hit, walked none, and punched out three. He threw 58 pitches and 41 of those for strikes.
Back to the pen… Woodford, who is up to eat innings, was tagged for three earned runs over 1.1 innings of work. He walked a pair and allowed three hits. The always electric but wild Hopkins entered in the bottom of the seventh with one out and a man on second who quickly advanced to third on a wild pitch. Hopkins then walked Volpe and Wells, recorded one out on a Jose Caballero ground out and allowed a game-tying single to Goldschmidt before being lifted for Matz.
With two outs in the eighth and the game tied 4-4, Matz allowed a single to Rosario and then a two-run go-ahead bomb to Lombard Jr. The 6-4 final score would hold and with the loss, the Rays record moved to 96-63.
The Rays will face the Phillies in their final regular season series of the season. Expect more of the same out of the Rays over the final three games — tune up appearances for the arms, some shortened appearances for Yandy, Caminero, Aranda, Hicks, etc. But, the Rays will also look to finish the season on a high note before heading into a five day break as they await their ALDS opponent.
