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
Related stories on Rays baseball
- JUST FOR STARTERS: Rays starter Shane McClanahan gave up a season-high seven hits on Sunday, but he only allowed one run in six innings and left with the lead. Here's our "Just For Starters'' breakdown of his day, and cumulative stats for the Rays' starting rotation all season. CLICK HERE
- RAYS DINK TO WIN (Sat.): Needing offense in the worst way after a three-game funk, the Tampa Bay Rays finally beat the New York Yankees on Saturday thanks to two bloop hits and a soft infield hit, winning 3-1 at sold-out Tropicana Field. CLICK HERE
- TAILLON BLANKS RAYS (Fri.): Tampa Bay was looking forward to challenging the New York Yankees this weekend, but their bats haven't showed up. The Rays were silenced for the second straight night, this time by Yankees starter Jameson Taillon, who only allowed two hits through eight innings in the 2-0 victory. CLICK HERE
- CORTES DOMINATES RAYS (Thurs.): Tampa Bay's Ryan Yarbrough matched New York's Nestor Cortes for five innings Thursday night, but a tough sixth inning led to a 7-2 Yankees' victory. Cortes went eight-plus and was tough to figure out for Rays' hitters. CLICK HERE
- TOM BREW COLUMN: The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays did something usual on Thursday, taking to social media to highlight this country's serious problem with gun violence after events in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas in the past week or so. There were no game updates, just gun violence statistics. Good for them. CLICK HERE
- 1-2 PUNCH WITH McCLANAHAN, RASMUSSEN: The argument can be made that Tampa Bay starters Shane McClanahan and Drew Rasmussen are the best one-two punch in the American League, and they've been really good the past month or so. Their numbers are exceptional, and here's our comparison of the best pair of pitchers in the league. CLICK HERE
- RAYS 2022 SCHEDULE: Here is the complete 2022 schedule for the Tampa Bay Rays, with results and stats from every game far, and dates, locations and gametimes for the rest of the season. CLICK HERE
