Tuesday, 4 a.m.
For most of the season, they have been subject to the rises and falls of baseball
There are days when you swear the Rays are better than they have played, that they could indeed muster a charge at the second wild-card berth. Then there are the days when the bats turn invisible, when they get lost on the base paths.
It is little wonder, in other words, that the Rays are a .500 team. They simply play like they're better than that, followed by streaks where they are worse.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!
Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
Then there was Monday night, when the Rays were both very good and very bad on the same night.
In the end, it was the good Rays who prevailed, as Daniel Robertson singled up the middle to drive in Kevin Kiermaier (who had tripled) with the winning run in bottom of the 10th inning against the Detroit Tigers. It was
the Rays' fifth walkoff victory, including their third in the last 11 home games.
Robertson led a 17-hit attack by the Rays, whose offense has scored 18 times in the last two games. But it came only after the Rays had lost leads of 5-0, of 7-3 and of 9-7.
The Rays are 30-1 when scoring at least five runs. They have won 57 straight when scoring at least eight.
Still, it almost didn't happen. The bullpen has been stellar lately, but no so much on Monday night. The team used nine pitchers, and five of them gave up at least a run.
Chris Archer returned to the lineup, but as manager Kevin Cash said, he looked "rusty." He lasted only 10 outs and gave up six hits. Matt Andriese got the win for pitching the 10th inning.
“Yeah, it’s surprising," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We’ve talked about his command being so good. The first two pitches of the game almost hits a guy in the head. I think rusty is a fair term.”
Said Archer: “The first batter I was a little excited, but overall I think the biggest take- away is that I was healthy," Archer said. "They put a lot of balls
in play and they found holes and that’s unfortunate. The main thing is that I’m healthy and we won the game. That’s what I’m excited about right now
“It was awesome (being back). I wanted to never stop. It stinks that I gave up a few runs later in the game there, but I’m knocking some rust off and my stuff is going to get crisper and crisper and the results will be better next time.”
Robertson gave credit to Kiermaier for the 10th inning.
“I can’t give enough credit to KK to get that going," Robertson said. "Getting on third base there. Matt Duffy with the at-bat of the day. I don’t know how many pitches he saw, but he would get me enough pitches to know what that guy was doing. What an at-bat that was.
"At the end of the day I knew I had Ramos coming up behind me. I knew that they were going to try and attack me. When I was off a little bit on that safety bunt, I told myself get in the zone and just be short and simple to it and I was able to get one up the middle there.”
Scoring 10 runs felt good, Robertson said.
“It shows that our offense is there," Robertson said. "Our bullpen has been doing their thing. Pitching staff for us has been carrying us. For us to get ahead early, it is perfect. They came back, scored some runs on us and then for us to just keep fighting. ...Credit to everyone, the offense and the pitchers to keep it close there in the end.”
Robertson, Carlos Gomez and C.J. Cron all had three hits for the Rays.
“It feels good," Cron said. "It feels good to score nine runs back-to-back days. Actually we scored ten today. The pitchers have been unbelievable recently and it’s nice to give them some runs. Today we scored one more. It’s nice to finally pick them up.”
“I definitely feel a lot better, that’s for sure. I feel more comfortable up there. My timing is a lot better than it was a couple weeks ago. I feel good and hopefully I can just continue it.”
It was an uncharacteristic way to win for the Rays, who have ridden their pitching for most of the season.
"We didn’t do our best on the mound," Cash said. "But we've been on a pretty impressive run, so i think the guys are allowed a little bit of a hiccup. It was nice to see the offense was there to pick them up."
The Rays play against the Tigers again tonight at 7:10 p.m.. Ryan Stanek pitches for the Rays against Detroit's Matthew Boyd.
{ 0 comments… read it below or Subscriptions }