This game was unnecessarily close for the entire game because the runners in scoring position issues continued, but thankfully, Boston struggled to get anyone into scoring position all night allowing the Rays to score just enough to hold on with a 3-1 victory to open the series at Tropicana Field.
The Rays started off with a bang as Yandy Diaz spoiled the exact pitch and location that Carlos Narvaez requested from Connelly Early:
That pitch jams lesser batters, but Diaz is in a zone this season setting career highs in all the right places as the broadcast pointed out tonight during his second plate appearance:
The game would be tied in the third (see below) and would remain as such until Jonathan Aranda was presented with a chance at redemption in the 5th inning. Aranda, after driving in 43 runs through the first two months of the season, is deep into a June swoon with just a single RBI this month coming into this contest. He struck out in the first inning after Ryan Vilade stole second base and then rolled into a double-play after consecutive walks to Caminero and Vilade to begin the 3rd inning, but came through in the 5th singling through the left side of the infield to drive in Austin Slater and chase Early.
Slater joined the team earlier today and had an infield single along with a stolen base in the 5th after a bases loaded lineout and a strikeout in his first two plate appearances. That successful swipe by Slater in the 5th was his 51st successful steal in 59 attempts, giving him an 86.4% success rate. Perhaps he can show Chandler Simpson a few things while the two are on the roster together and help him break out of his steals slump.
Ian Seymour did so well as an opener that Kevin Cash allowed him to work four innings before giving way to Casey Legumina. Seymour threw 55 pitches over four innings with the sole mistake of badly missing his 2-1 breaking ball location to Marcelo Mayer, who hit the mistake 401 feet into the right field bleachers:
Seymour was otherwise quite impressive tonight generating three whiffs with his fastball and another four with his sweeper going pitch for pitch with the more talented Early while both were in the game.
Seymour gave way to Legumina and then brought in Cam Booser to just embarass Jarren Duran and then work with Nick Fortes to keep Rafaela close enough to first to allow Fortes to erase Rafaela attempting to move into scoring position with two outs to end the 6th inning. Booser gave way to Kevin Kelly after getting Wilyer Abreu to pop up. Kelly then hit Willson Contreras with the first pitch and followed that up with a single to PE Coach Mickey Gaspar. Kelly then rebounded to strike out Caleb Durbin, but ridiculously needed the help of ABS to get the strikeout after executing this pitch location:
A wild pitch to Isiah Kiner-Falefa moved both runners into scoring position, but Kelly got the groundball he needed to end the inning and leave both runners stranded to end the 7th inning. The ball once again found Aranda who came up in the bottom of the 7th with two men on after a one-out single by Caminero and a well-accepted walk by Victor Mesa Jr who did not expand his zone after repeated efforts by Greg Weissert. Danny Coloumbe came in to face Aranda and got both Aranda and Williamson to hit easy fly balls to left to end the scoring threat.
Garrett Cleavinger came in for the 8th and struck out Andruw Monasterio with yet another assist from ABS as Fortes did a fantastic job tonight with close pitches, as well as obvious pitches, behind the plate tonight. Cleavinger fell behind the first two batters of the inning, but came back from a 3-0 count to Narvaez to get a harmless 6-3 groundout before a pop-up to Duran ended the inning
The Rays once again got multiple runners on base in the bottom of the 8th with multiple walks and a steal by Taylor Walls. Diaz drove home Walls with a sacrifice fly as he continues to wear out relievers in the league hitting a league-leading .451 off opposing relievers this season.
The Rays were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position tonight stranding 10 runners on base and are now hitting just .203 this month with runners in scoring position, 45 points below the league average in June. Hopefully this drought ends soon because this game should have been a lot easier than it was. The game felts like a 7-1 blowout, yet Boston had the tying run come to the plate twice in the 9th inning but Bryan Baker secured his 17th save and the club’s 38th win.
Finally, I found it entertaining to see Tyron Guerrero pitching for Boston, because he was previously Tayron Guerrero and had last been seen in the majors with Miami in 2019. In that time, Guerrero has pitched in Charlotte, Chiba Lotte Japan, Louisville, Mexico, as well as in Salt Lake City, Worchester, and was called up to Boston on May 22nd. He hit 101 with multiple pitches in this game topping out at 102 as a well-traveled 35-year old thrower just overpowering four of the five batters he faced with Taylor Walls making the only decent contact off him.
