The Rays eked out a win over the Nationals with good pitching and defense and just enough offense to win their first series since they took two of three from the Angels a few weeks ago.
Nick Martinez got the start, and while he probably isn’t, over a full season, the Cy Young caliber guy we watched earlier in the season, he is the sort of bulldog fighter who every team needs in their rotation. Uncharacteristically he gave up three walks, and the homerun and two double he surrendered were on pitches
over the heart of the plate, suggesting that his concern about command made him reluctant to try to paint corners.
But a guy who can give you six innings with three runs is a pitcher who can keep you in ballgames even when it’s not his best day. I’ve grown quite fond of Nick Martinez.
My usual complaint in the many games where they fail to score runs is that they get very few hits, or their only hits are singles. Today they actually connected for some nice extra base hits, but least early in the game these always seemed to come with two outs, which made it hard to turn those hits into runs. They did score in the bottom of the third on back to back doubles from Taylor Walls and Yandy Diaz, but in other innings they simply left men on base, which is why they found themselves down 3-1 in the middle of the sixth inning.
They were able to come back, however, with some timely homers against the Nationals bullpen.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Ryan Vilade cut the deficit to one with this homerun:
An inning later, Jonny DeLuca put the Rays ahead for good with this one:
The combo of Cleavinger, Baker and Kelly pitched three scoreless innings, and your Tampa Bay Rays came away with the victory. I liked seeing Bryan Baker used in the eighth, to face the heart of the Nationals order; I was worried that Cash had reverted to rigid bullpen roles and I for one like the idea of using your best pitcher against their best hitters.
A few shout outs. The Rays slump did seem to coincide with DeLuca’s IL stint. Maybe that’s just coincidence, but seeing him come back with a little extra oomph in his bat is great.
Chandler Simpson — his ability to make contact and steal bases — was a key part of the Rays earlier success, and in recent weeks he was looking rough. He wasn’t getting on base very often, and when he did he wasn’t making the kind of ruckus that makes him effective. He’s a young player, not yet an established major league guy, so while it’s possible others teams had simply caught on to him, it’s also possible that a bad run had gotten into his head. At any rate, I hope this series is evidence:
(You can thank/blame Jason Collette for this image).
Finally, Yandy. Don’t need to say more.
