Rasmussen, Diaz Get Rays' West Coast Swing Off to Good Start With 6-1 Thrashing of A's

Tampa Bay pitcher Drew Rasmussen put together a second-straight great start, allowing just one run and one hit in five innings to help the Rays beat the Oakland Athletics 6-1 on Monday night in Oakland, with Yandy Diaz as the hitting star, something he does often here.

Tom Brew | May 3, 2022

Rasmussen, Diaz Get Rays' West Coast Swing Off to Good Start With 6-1 Thrashing of A's /

OAKLAND, Calif. — Yandy Diaz doesn't mess around at Oakland Coliseum, and he's got the playoff memories to prove it. And much like he did three years ago in the postseason, the Tampa Bay first baseman started the Rays' 10-game West Coast swing in style, with a lead-off home run just six pitches into the game.

It was a great kick-start to the Rays' easy 6-1 win. They hit the ball well all night long, up and down the order, and they also got a second-straight terrific start from right-hander Drew Rasmussen, who allowed just one run and one hit in five innings of work.

The Rays' bullpen took it from there, with four relievers all pitching an inning and allowing just one hit. It was a solid performance — very much Rays-like — with two-hit pitching, no errors and 11 hits with RBIs from five different players.

Rasmussen had just three strikeouts after posting a career-high nine on Wednesday. He wasn't as pleased with his performance as he was in that win over Seattle five days ago, but he'll take it. He's pitched 11 innings in his last two starts, and given up only one run and three hits total.

“I didn’t think my execution was as good tonight. They hit a lot of balls hard, but they hit a lot of gloves,'' Rasmussen said. "It wasn’t great but it did work. I thought the shapes were right (with the breaking balls). The job is to help your team win in any way possible, so to string together a couple of quality outings is always a positive.''

It was a nice way to start the road trip, too, especially since the weekend went sideways with a couple of blowout losses.

"Everybody kind of played a part tonight,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. ''No doubt it was a good start (to this trip). We're not used to having lopsided games against us. We did a lot of good things tonight.''

Rasmussen downplayed the blowout losses over the weekend, knowing full well that this team has plenty of talent and is going to win a lot of games. They are 13-10 now, and even though it's still very early, that's a 92-win pace. There's no reason to be concerned at all, especially for the guys in that locker room.

“If I understand it correctly, this team was 13-14 a year ago and they won 100 games,'' Rasmussen said. "It’s nice to get the road trip going, but I’m not too concerned about how the weekend went.''

Oakland's only run came in the second. Rasmussen had retired his first five batters in order, but then walked Oakland first baseman Seth Brown. He then stole second, and scored on a single to left by left fielder Chad Pinter.

That would be it. Period.

The only other hit Oakland got all night was a little dribbler down the third base line in the seventh inning. It rolled about 40 feet and pitcher Phoenix Sanders picked it up and through to first, but designated hitter Jed Lowrie beat the throw.

The Rays, who got spanked twice over the weekend by the Minnesota Twins — giving up nine runs two days in a row — needed a good day to this long road trips that will also wind through Seattle for four games and Anaheim for three against the Angels.

They are 13-10 now, and won a series opener on the road for the first time all year. (They lost both opening games in Chicago last week to the White Sox and Cubs.)

Diaz, who said afterward that he likes hitting leadoff, was a postseason hero in Oakland the last time he batted leadoff here. In the 2019 American League Wild Card game, he hit a leadoff homer in the Rays' 5-1 win, and added another homer later in the game.

"Yandy probably will lead off more now, with where we're at injury-wise,'' Cash said. “We've got an offense that we expect a lot of big things from this year. “Even though with key guys out we've still got some key guys in there and would expect that it's going to be a very deep, thick lineup that can wear pitching down, and I felt like we kind of did that tonight."

And batting leadoff, that's fine with Diaz.

"I'll be OK with that,'' Diaz said about batting first in the order. "I still say we are the best team in the league when we combine pitching and hitting. We just have to stay positive and stay in the moment.''

The Rays scored twice in the third to take the lead, with four straight singles and an outfield error by A's center fielder Christian Pace. Tampa Bay led 3-1, and tacked on two more in the fourth.

A big RBI single for Rays catcher Mike Zunino, who's really been struggling at the plate, drove in Manuel Margot, who had doubled. Wander Franco, who was 3-for -4 on the night, singled to drive in Zunino. They added the final run in the fifth with a Manuel Margot double. He had three hits.

The Rays broke out their navy jerseys for the first time all year. They just arrived, and it was Rasmussen's call to wear them. It's a good look, and they played well in them.

“I’m a big fan of the navies. It’s good to have them back.’’

The two teams get together again on Tuesday night in another 9:40 p.m. ET start. Ryan Yarbrough is coming off the injured list to start for the Rays. He's been dealing with a groin injury and has made two rehab starts. Paul Blackburn (3-0, 1.35 ERA) starts for Oakland.

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