Rays Stay Hot — Literally and Figuratively — in 7-3 Win Over Royals To Open 2nd Half
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was 95 degrees at first pitch on Friday night when the Tampa Bay Rays resumed their baseball season in Kansas City. That can happen in the dead of a hot, hot summer in the Midwest.
But the Rays, who've been hot themselves the past two weeks, handled the elements well, winning 7-3 thanks to a bases-loaded double by Yandy Diaz, their hottest hitter lately, and another solid start from Drew Rasmussen.
His baseball numbers told part of the story — five innings pitched, and just one run allowed. He navigating through traffic on the basepaths in every inning, and threw a career-high 94 pitches, getting out of trouble whenever he needed to.
But there were other numbers even more important on a stifling night.
"We kept a little a track. I went through two undershirts, three jerseys, two pairs of pants. It was wild today,'' Rasmussen said with a laugh. "It's warm, but it's just that time of year. It's going to be hot here in the middle of the summer. I was instinctually going to my mouth and I didn't have anything dry to wipe it off on.''
Rasmussen's last pitch might have been his best, getting a double play-inducing ground ball to Diaz to end the fifth inning.
He gave up at least one hit in every inning, and got nicked for a run in the third when Kansas City third baseman Nicky Lopez led off with a single, stole second and scored on a two-out single by Andrew Benintendi to tie the game at 1-1.
"I didn't feel like I gave up a whole lot of hard contact, but they found some holes,'' Rasmussen said. "It would have nice to get through six innings with that pitch count, or even seven.
''But it was a great team win, though. First game back, we're rolling in the right direction.''
The Rays bounced right back after the lone Kansas City run against Rasmussen, scoring four runs in the top of the fourth. Isaac Paredes walked to lead off the inning, and then Josh Lowe singled to left-center. They moved up a base on a wild pitch, and then Paredes scored on Francisco Mejia's infield single. Brett Phillips, who walked and scored in the third inning, walked again to load the bases. Diaz brought them all in with a double down the left field line, making it 5-1, with Phillips flying around the bases from first to get that extra run.
Phillips, who had two walks and a base hit, got on base three times in a game for the first time since May 22. It was much-needed, considering his struggles the past few months.
"It feels good and encouraging to roll over into the first game of the second half and help this team offensively,'' Phillips. "It's a small stepping stone in the right direction. When it comes to being on the bases and defense, that's got to show up perfect every night for me. A play like that, going from first to home, I expect that of myself.''
When Phillips was at bat in the fourth, Royals starter Brad Keller had to take a few minutes to deal with a bloody nose. Phillips had a 3-1 count at the time, and after a lengthy delay, he got ball four on the next pitch. Two pitches later, Diaz hit the big three-run double.
"To see him stay in with some gauze in his nose, it's a grinder right there and I respect it,'' Phillips said. "I'm glad he threw me a ball because I'm not going to lie, my eyes were looking at his nose.''
Kansas City cut the lead to 5-3 in the seventh inning off of reliever Pete Fairbanks, but then the Rays got them right back in the eighth. Taylor Walls led off with a walk, and scored on a Mejia double. Mejia scored on a Brandon Lowe single to give the Rays a 7-3 lead.
Colin Poche pitched a perfect eighth inning for the Rays and Shawn Armstrong, pitched the ninth to close it out, allowing just one hit.
Rasmussen got the win to move to 6-3 on the year, and his ERA dropped to 3.13. The Rays are now 11-5 in his 16 starts this season, and they are 7-1 in their last eight games and are 12-5 since July 2.
The Rays are now 11 games over .500, tying a season-high.
During this recent hot streak, the Rays have been getting a lot of production from the bottom half of the order, something that's been missing a lot of the year. Phillips was on three times, Mejia had two hits and Josh Lowe singled and scored a run as well.
"It makes all the difference in the world, especially when you're looking at playoff and World Series teams,'' Phillips said of getting more production from the bottom of the order. "Those teams get production one through nine.
"I'd say in the first half we really relied on the top of the order. But moving forward, if we're going to chase down the Yankees or keep our place in the wild ard, we've got to continue to have production from everyone on the team.''
Diaz continues to produce in a big way for the Rays. He's reached safely in 20 straight starts now and was 1-for-3 with two walks on Friday, with those three RBIs.
"Yandy has been such a big part of our team in the first half,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "He's putting together a great season, and when we've got guys on base, he's a pretty likable guy to be at the plate. You know he's going to give you a good at-bat. It was nice for us to kind of pick up where we left off offensively.''
Watch Drew Rasmussen's postgame video
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.