Guardians' Jose Ramirez Gets 2 Big Hits, Beats Rays 4-1 To Tighten Wild-Card Race
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There aren't a lot of household names in the Cleveland Guardians lineup. Heck, even the name is new — it's the Guardians now, not the Indians or the Tribe — which will take some getting used to.
But the one name we do know is Jose Ramirez, the Guardians' designated hitter and All-Star who's leading the team in home runs and RBIs. Ramirez was right in the middle of the Guardians' 4-1 win over the Rays on Friday night at Tropicana Field, hitting a two-run home run in the fifth inning and driving in another insurance run in the seventh. It was the 15th time this season that he'd had three RBIs or more in a game.
The Rays played a role in his big day, though.
In the fifth inning, the score was tied 1-1 and Rays starter Jeffrey Springs, who had worked his way through a lot of traffic from the first inning on, was still on the mound despite his pitch count piling up. He struck out Guardians center fielder Myles Straw before left fielder Steven Kwan singled, and later stole second.
Very quickly, right-handed reliever Ryan Thompson — who's been excellent lately —popped up in the Rays' bullpen. He got ready fast, presumably to face the next tough right-handed hitter in the Cleveland lineup. Springs got shortstop Amed Rosario — full disclosure, he's right-handed, too — to pop up to second base for the second out.
In stepped the switch-hitting Ramirez, who hit a 1-1 slider — Springs' 90th pitch of the game — into the seats in left-center field for a two-run homer. Springs got the final out, and his night was done.
Ryan Thompson, who's gone 15 straight innings without giving up a run, sat back down, too.
The Ramirez homer was all Cleveland needed, especially since the Rays went went up and down in order the rest of the game and never threatened.
“It didn’t work in our favor tonight,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said about how the Rays dealt with Ramirez. "It’s a 1-1 count, and you trust that Springsy is going to make a pitch. He’s just really good. The slider was down, middle down, but he’s proven over the course of his career that he can handle good pitches.
“I thought (Springs) was good. He made a bunch of really good pitches, You take away Jose’s home run, and we’re talking about a really good outing.''
The fifth-inning decision-making on Friday night looked eerily similar to last Saturday in Kansas City. Lefty Ryan Yarbrough had pitched three scoreless innings in relief and went back out to for the eighth inning. With Ryan Thompson warming up in the bullpen, Yarbrough gave up a solo home run to right-handed hitter Michael Taylor. He also gave up another homer to Bobby Witt, Jr., — who's also a right-handed hitter — and the Royals won 6-3.
With the loss in Game No. 100, the Rays fell to 53-47 on the season. The Guardians are now 51-48, just 1 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay for the final wild-card spot in the American League. It was the Rays' sixth loss in the past seven games, their worst seven-game stretch of the season.
The losing stretch has come mostly because the Rays' bats have gone silent again. Outside of the 6-4 extra-inning win on Wednesday in Baltimore, the Rays have scored just 10 runs in the six losses. Here's some ugly numbers:
- Hits in six losses: 43
- Runners in scoring position: 7-for-40
- RISP batting average: .175
- Left on base: 44
Kevin Cash talks about not taking advantage of the pitching in the 1st, José Ramírez adding a homer, the offense and more after the @RaysBaseball fall to the Guardians in game 1. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/eiIe65hicM
— Bally Sports Sun: Rays (@BallyRays) July 30, 2022
The lack of offense isn't anything new to the Rays this season. There's been some slumps throughout this injury-riddled season.
Cash said there's no obvious answer to the slump.
“I don’t know. I’m not really sure. If I had the answer, we would have already provided it,'' he said. "Stay positive, stay with the trust in the guys that they will get out of this. We’ve got to get out of this together It’s got to be a collective approach. It’s not one guy, and we have to put more pressure on pitchers and get better results.''
The Rays got two singles and and two walks from Cleveland starter Shane Bieber in the first inning, but only mustered one run. They threatened again in the fourth with two hits, but also didn't score.
“(Bieber), he definitely settled in,'' Cash said. "It was kind of uncharacteristic that he didn’t have a feel for the strike zone in the first and we didn’t take advantage of it. We’ve got to do a better job of not letting the pitcher get into such a good rhythm. His pitching was also very good.''
Josh Lowe had two hits for the Rays, as did Yu Chang, who started at shortstop. The rest of the team, though, was just 2-for-26 on the night.
The teams meet again on Saturday in an early-afternoon game that starts at 1:10 p.m. ET. Corey Kluber will start for the Rays, and he'll face the Guardians for the first time with Tampa Bay. The former Cy Young Award winner pitched in Cleveland for nine years. Zach Plesac will pitch for Cleveland.
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.