Rays Jump On Cardinals Early and Late, Cruise to Easy 11-3 Win on Wednesday
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays doubled their pleasure and doubled their fun on Wednesday night, scoring three runs in the first inning and cruising to a 11-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Tropicana Field thanks to seven doubles on the night.
It was their second win in two nights against the Cardinals, and the Rays are now 6-1 in interleague play this year. They're 21-6 since the start of the 2021 season, by far the best mark in baseball.
The Rays took advantage of a bullpen day for St. Louis, jumping all over left-hander Packy Naughton in the first inning. They got a lead-off single from Manuel Margot, then three straight RBI doubles from Ji-Man Choi, former Cardinal Randy Arozarena and Vidal Brujan.
The Rays added a solo run in the second, this time on an RBI double from Harold Ramirez. They added one more in the third inning when Brujan drove in another run on a ground ball.
Rays starter Corey Kluber was really sharp through five innings, allowing just a fourth-inning Tyler O-Neill homer, but the Cardinals got two him in the sixth with a walk and three straight singles to open the inning, cutting the lead to 5-3.
Manager Kevin Cash scrambled to get the bullpen ready and, once again, Jason Adam did his thing. He came in and got a double play ball on three pitches, and then got a fly ball to end the inning, albeit all the way to the warning track in left field.
The Rays bats continued to thump late, scoring three runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to take an 11-3 lead.
Adam now has an 0.75 earned run average, allowing just three runs all season in 24 innings of work. Luke Bard made his Rays debut, pitching a perfect seventh and allowing just a hit in the eight. Shawn Armstrong closed out the game with
The rout was so bad that Cardinals catching legend Yadier Molina came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth. Francisco Mejia opened the inning with a single on a 51 mph curveball, but then he struck out Isaac Paredes with two slow curves and then surprised him with a 75 mph fastball, getting the loudest ovation of the night from the Cardinals fans in attendance.
He then got Taylor Walls to fly out to left for the second out and, after a Margot double, Molina got Brett Phillips, who knows a thing or two about pitching, to fly out to center field.
The Rays had a season-high 18 hits on the night, with Margot getting four hits and Choi and Arozarena getting three hits each. Arozarena also had four RBIs and Brujan.
The two teams will wrap up the series on Thursday with a 1:10 p.m. ET matinee, and then the Rays will head off on a long road trip to Minnesota, New York and Baltimore.
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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.