Paredes says hello with two-homer game

by Gary Shelton on May 19, 2022

in general

Thursday, 4 a.m.

Regarding that much-discussed Austin Meadows trade...

Maybe the Rays didn't give up enough.

The trade for Isaac Paredes caused a lot of frowns at the time, seeing as how Meadows was a popular player who had driven in 106 runs a year ago.

But, no, the Rays didn't give him away for nothing.




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Paredes, in his first memorable day as a Ray, had two home runs to lead Tampa Bay to a 6-1 crushing of the Tigers, the team that traded him to the Rays. It was the second straight big win for the Rays, who have scored 14 runs with 22 hits and five homers the last two games.

"It was just encouraging that we bounced back for two consecutive days after a frustrating loss on the first day of the series," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "Our offense did some really good things right out of the gate.

“Today, before the game, Motor (hitting coach Chad Mattola) said (Paredes) really had a good work day in the cage. Some aggressessive intent to his swing. He took it out in the ball game. That was awesome to see."

The Rays got all the runs they would need when they batted around in the first inning. Francisco Mejia's two-run single highlighted a three-run inning. From there, Paredes took over.

It was plenty of offense for Drew Rasmussen, who ran his record to 4-1. He went seven innings and allowed just four hits. He's allowed two runs or fewer in 17 of his 18 starts with the Rays.

Tampa Bay is off today, then travels to Baltimore for a three-game series. The first game is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Friday night at Camden Yards.

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