Thursday, 4 a.m.
Suddenly, the bats are recharged.
For much of the early-season of the Tampa Bay Rays, they have lacked juice. There was no power, no consistency, no danger.
Well, look who's making the infielders back up these days.
The Rays had another good night at the plate in Wednesday night's 9-5 bashing of the Boston Red Sox, the third straight win by the Rays over the Sox and their fifth straight overall.
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In their last three games, the Rays have collected 39 hits and 25 runs.
The Rays got home runs from Willy Adames, Brandon Lowe, Yoshi Tsutsugo and Austin Meadows.
The Rays were coasting for most of the night, leading 8-0 at one point before Boston had a five-run eighth.
"I think these guys are very aware of where we’re at, how taxed we are in the bullpen," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "Not that we're putting pressure on ourselves in this, but they do what they can to give us some breathing room. We got runs. The most impressive thing is we continued to add (runs)."
For the Rays, one of the encouraging things was the start of Blake Snell, who went five innings for his first win and allowed four hits and no runs
"He was really good," Cash said. "We were all happy and impressed by Blake’s performance. It was another step in the right direction He’s got to feel good. He had everything going. His strike percentage high 60-70 percent. If Blake Snell is throwing strikes at that rate, more times than not, he’s gong to have some really good games."
The Rays try to pull off a four-game sweep of the Red Sox today at 4:30 p.m. at Fenway Park. Tyler Glasnow will start for Tampa Bay against Boston's Kyle Hart.