Rays send Sergio x 2 against Angels

by Gary Shelton on May 20, 2018 · 6 comments

in general

Romo was good Saturday, will pitch again today./CARMEN MANDATO

Romo was good Saturday, will pitch again today./CARMEN MANDATO

Sunday, 2 a.m.

It was weird. It was different. It was outside the box, but inside the strike zone.

And it worked so well that the Tampa Bay Rays will try it again.

Today.

The Rays came up with the brainstorm of starting short reliever Sergio Romo, the first over-30 starter the franchise has used in 604 games. And after Romo struck out the side in the first inning -- and handed the ball to Ryan Yarbrough, who went 6 1/3 innings and took the 5-3 win -- the Rays decided that Romo had a ditto to him. He'll start against in today's game.

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Robertson hit a grand slam to lift Rays./CARMEN MANDATO

Robertson hit a grand slam to lift Rays./JEFFREY S. KING

For a day, the plan worked perfectly. Romo maneuvered through the top of the Angels lineup, allowing Yarbrough to avoid them.

"We're going to find out a lot,''manager Kevin Cash said. "We're not going to make a judgement after one outing. I'm sure we'll visit this situation, this scenario again but (Saturday) should give us a pretty good assessment of how comfortable the pitchers are.

Yarbrough pitched well in the victory./CARMEN MANDATO

Yarbrough pitched well in the victory./CARMEN MANDATO

''It'll be talked about. I hope it works."

It was Tampa Bay's sixth straight win. The Rays are now 22-22 on the season and in third place in the AL East.

Daniel Robertson hit his first grand slam in the second to lead the Rays to their win.

"It's a dream come true," Robertson said. "I can't put it into words."

Robertson's home run gave the Rays an early 5-0 lead, and they won with only five hits.

"Try not to read too much into it, but it really did go with Romo's performance," Cash said. "We got the lead and handed the ball to Yarbs. I was really impressed with the way Romo handled things."

Today, Romo starts again against Angels' sensation Shohei Ohtani. The game begins at 4:07 p.m.

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