This game got off to an inauspicious start with a leadoff home run by Taylor Ward, but this was otherwise yet another persistent team effort to lead to the club’s 32nd win of the season as well as their eighth consecutive series win. Ward’s homer was no cheapy as it was a no-doubter that would have been out of any park in baseball, but that would be the only offense Baltimore was able to put together on the evening thanks to stellar pitching by Griffin Jax early and the bullpen behind him.
Kyle Bradish
was coming off easily his best start of the season where he one-hit the Yankees on May 13th, and came out of the gates hot striking out both Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero to start the game on just ten pitches. Jonathan Aranda put the brakes on that expedited inning with a tremendous 10-pitch at bat coming back from an early 1-2 count to draw a walk. Yandy Diaz, who came into this contest with a healthy .421/.476/.569 triple-slash against Bradish in 21 career plate appearances, drove in Aranda with a double to tie the game in the bottom of the first and helping push Bradish over 30 pitches in the first inning. We’ll come back to that history in a bit.
Bradish settled won nicely through the rest of the first time through the lineup allowing just a walk to Palacios and a seeing eye single to Cedric Mullins. The next trip through the lineup saw Junior Caminero nearly hit one out to center while settling for a double, but nobody else was able to do anything against Bradish. The efficiency by which Bradish worked through innings two through five gave manager Craig Albernaz the confidence to allow Bradish to face Diaz a third time. He chose poorly:
It was confusing to see Albernaz laugh in the face of both the times through the order penalty as well as the hot history Diaz has had against Bradish, but the move backfired in spectular fashion as Diaz hit the second-longest home run in Tropicana Field this season at 439 feet. Bradish struck out Richie Palacios before giving way to the Baltimore A bullpen to keep them in the game. Compare that moment to Kevin Cash pulling Griffin Jax after five innings and not allowing him to face Taylor Ward a third time. Cash instead went to old reliable Kevin Kelly who came in and retired the side with the minimum batters faced thanks to a pretty double-play started by Richie Palacios.
The Baltimore pen held the Rays at bay through the 7th inning, including this perfectly executed quasi-pitchout between Yennier Cano and Sameul Basallo with the best peg to second base this side of Cal Raleigh throwing out Cody Bellinger earlier this season:
Simpson has now been caught stealing in 6 of his 20 attempts, but this is at least the second time it has taken perfect execution in all aspects to get him. Cash is not going to put any brakes on Simpson running, as he showed just last year when Jose Caballero ran with less efficiency on his way to the AL stolen base crown.
The Rays cashed in on some insurance runs in the 8th, and it may have come at a cost. Diaz was hit on the hand by an errant Cano fastball with two outs and had to leave the game. Hopefully the x-ryas on his hand come back clean because this lineup absolutely cannot lose his bat on a long-term basis. Carson Williams came in to pinch run for Diaz and fortunately scored on a Palacios as Williams lost track of the outs and stopped on the bases before barely making it home safely with the third run of the game:
Last year, that batted ball is probably caught or the throw home to Basallo is on the money and Williams is dead to rights at home, but this is a magical season so far and both events broke the Rays’ way to bring home the third run and put Palacios in scoring position. Johnny DeLuca followed that up with a second consecutive hit off Rico Garcia, equaling the number of hits Garcia had surrendered in the 20 innings of work he has had this season coming into this contest. Bryan Baker came in and went 1-2-3 against his former teammates for his 12th save.
The big story was the continued transition of Jax into the starting role. He worked five complete innings and did so using just 62 pitches while regaining some of his seemingly lost whiffiness. Jax generated a season-high 11 swings and misses on the evening, 7 coming off his changeup. Jax had generated 22 swings and misses over his past four contests in his transition from the bullpen, so this was notable. He threw that changeup 16 times generating 14 swings along with the 7 whiffs. This changeup usage appears to be very matchup driven with six lefties in the starting lineup for Baltimore and he used the pitch exclusively against lefties in the contest. This was arguably the best Jax has looked since the Rays acquired him last season:
The Rays go for the sweep in the day game finale tomorrow and hopefully the news on Diaz’s finger is not bad. The Rays will be facing former teammate Shane Baz while someone will open the game for Jesse Scholtens to do some bulk work.
