Inside The Rays

Taylor Walls Does It All In Helping Rays Beat Yankees 4-2

Tampa Bay infielder Taylor Walls has been struggling through the early part of the season, but he had a huge home run and two great defensive plays on Sunday, helping the Rays beat the New York Yankees 4-2 at Tropicana Field.

Tom Brew

Taylor Walls Does It All In Helping Rays Beat Yankees 4-2
Taylor Walls Does It All In Helping Rays Beat Yankees 4-2 /

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The first few months of this baseball season haven't been easy for Tampa Bay infielder Taylor Walls. But Sunday was the "Taylor Walls Show'' in the Rays' 4-2 win over the New York Yankees.

You'd think that Walls would be the happiest guy in the Rays' locker room after a second-straight win over their division rivals, but you'd be wrong.

His teammates were gushing over Walls' day — and the constant effort he puts in every day. Walls hit a home run to give the Rays the lead in the fifth inning, and he made two jaw-dropping defensive plays after that to preserve that lead.

His teammates couldn't be happier for the 25-year-old Cordele, Ga., native who played his college ball at Florida State. He came into the game hitting just .145 and had already made seven errors, so having a monster day made everyone happy.

"Walls was unbelievable,'' said Rays reliever J.P. Feyereisen, who pitched a perfect ninth inning to get the save. "If he starts getting on base and working AB's and hitting homers, look out, because that kid is special. Our faith in him never wavers, and he was great today.''

"Taylor Walls, what a day that guy had,'' said Rays starter Shane McClanahan, who benefitted from a huge double play in his sixth and final inning that was started by Walls. They had words in the dugout after the play "Let me think about making this TV appropriate. I said, 'you're a bad man,' along the lines of that.

"Taylor had a great day overall, and that play in the eighth, we owe Taylor a lot. We all know what Taylor can do. He plays his butt off every single day. When I'm pitching and I see he's in the lineup, I always feel pretty good about it.''

Winning with pitching and defense is the Rays' credo, and it all shined through on Sunday. McClanahan gave up a season-high seven hits, but the defense kept getting him out of multi-runner jams in several innings. He went six innings, and gave up just one run, a second-inning homer by Gleyber Torres. He worked around the other six hits, all singles.

"It was very impressive, because it felt like there was a lot of traffic inning after inning, but he stayed at it,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said of McClanahan's start. He's now 5-2 on the season, with a 2.01 ERA. "He stayed within himself and didn't try to do too much. When he needed strikeouts, he got them, and when he needed ground balls, he got ground balls.

"You have to (see McClanahan's maturity at a young age) because there's a lot of pressure, there's a loud crowd and it's a division opponent. You've got to have the ability to walk off the mound and take a deep breath and make big pitch after pitch.''

The Rays only had two hits all day. Ji-Man Choi tied the game with a home run in the bottom of the second, and Walls had the second hit with his homer in the fifth.

Their final two runs were gifted by the Yankees. They got four walks in the seventh inning and catcher Mike Zunino then got hit by a pitch, giving the Rays a 4-1 lead.

Aaron Judge did hit an eighth-inning homer off of Colin Poche, but the bullpen was great again. Jason Adam pitched a perfect seventh inning and Feyereisen got the save with a 1-2-3 ninth inning on just five pitches.. He's now pitched 23 innings this season without giving up an earned run.

With the win, the Rays (28-19) are back within 4.5 games of the Yankees (33-15), right where they started prior to Thursday. It was the first time all year that New York had lost consecutive road games. 

The two teams will play 15 more times this season, including six in June. The Rays play in New York June 14-16 and the Yankees return to Tropicana Field June 20-22. 

Watch Kevin Cash's postgame press conference

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Tom Brew
TOM BREW

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.

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