Colome was shaky, but he got his 20th save./JEFFREY S KING
Wednesday, 2 a.m.
This is why it is hard to trust the save statistic.
In collecting his most recent one, the best thing that Alex Colome did was to survive.
Colome earned the 20th save of this season against Cincinnati Tuesday night, but it was hardly a night he'll tell his grandchildren about. Colome struggled, and he survived. He did not star in the Rays' 6-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
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Sucre puts the tag on Jose Peraza at home plate./JEFFREY S. KING
Colome entered the game in the ninth with a three-run lead, and in the end, he had to use almost everything but a whip and a chair to hold off the Reds. He gave up three hits (a home run, a double and a single) and two runs before striking out Scott Schebler.
“He's not invincible,” said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. “He's going to give up some hits.” Still, Colome did get out of the inning.
There were other spotty moments for the Rays. Routine fly balls were falling for triples and doubles much of Wednesday night.
Logan Morrison had a two-run single./JEFFREY S. KING
“We've got to clean it up,” Rays' manager Kevin Cash said.
Said Dickerson: “I think that [Bourjos] thought he was going to have that ball and he lost it. At the last minute, he said, ‘I can’t see it’ or something like that. I would have made a really good play if I would have caught that ball. It hit off my glove. I was playing in. I had a great route to the ball, but I didn’t catch it. Besides that, we won the game.”
The Rays, however, did just enough for the win, scoring three times in the third and three in the fourth.
Corey Dickerson and Logan Morrison each drove in two runs for Tampa Bay. Dickerson leads the American League with 93 hits and 29 extra base hits. With 29 multi-hit games, he is tied with Starling Castro for the league lead.
“They have up to this point, had All-Star seasons,” Cash said. “They all get there a little bit differently. Both those guys were acquired last year. New teammates. New surroundings. Took some time to settle in, but they did a nice job. Corey came in with, everyone likes to talk about him losing the weight and getting stronger and I’m impressed with the way he’s swung the bat and hit the ball the other way. Similar to Votto, he shows genuine adjustment when he gets deep in counts and it’s allowed him to find ways to get hits.
Dickerson is congratulated by Souza Jr. after his home run./JEFFREY S. KING
“LoMo just doesn’t miss pitches. He goes up there with probably the most professional at-bat on our team. He knows what the pitcher is trying to do to him to get him out and he sticks to his game plan. When he gets his pitch, we’ve seen time and time again that he doesn’t miss it.”
Alex Cobb went seven innings and allowed only two earned runs for the Rays.
“I don’t care who we are facing right now,” Cobb said. “We need some wins badly and we need to get them abundantly because it’s a bunched up not only division, but league. We need to start separating ourselves.”
Cobb's change-up continues to improve as he throws.
“Guys that have been around me since the Tommy John rehab come back knowing that the changeup is probably the last pitch that has come for me. I’d say over the last 3-4 games, there has been a lot of good signs with it. Working on making it as consistent as my other two pitches. To get that, I just have to keep throwing it and hopefully find some situations throughout the game where I can work on it and try and get that feel to where I can go to it like I used to and it was my best pitch.”
The Rays are back to two games over .500.
Tonight, Erasmo Ramirez tries to end his rough patch as he pitches against Tim Adelman. In Ramirez' last three outings, he is 0-2 with an ERA of 10.00.
Cobb went seven strong innings for the Rays./KEFFREY S. KING
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