Sunday, 4 a.m.
Suddenly, the Tampa Bay Rays seem to have plenty of offense for baseball's stretch run.
The Rays, whose bats turned into toothpicks in their July swoon, completed a successful road trip Saturday night with a humiliating torching of the Los Angeles Angels. They scored the most runs they have scored this year, on the most hits, in the team's 18-4 victory.
It continued a week where the Rays ravaged the baseball. Even in Saturday's 7-6 loss in the first game of their doubleheader, the Rays were able to muster plenty of offense.
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.
Consider the 4-2 record the Rays had on their West Coast swing. They scored 49 runs on 78 hits. In the three games against the Angels, they scored 33 runs on 41 hits.
The Rays were relentless. Harold Ramirez had four hits.Randy Arozarena, Isaac Paredes and Osleivis Basabe all had three. Yandy Diaz and Christian Bethancourt had two.
Paredes and Siri each homered to remain tied for the team lead with 24. Randy Arozarena hit his 19th of the season.
The Rays really got going after a two-out error by Jordyn Adams, who dropped a routine popup in the fifth. The Rays went on to score four times in the inning.
Not to be forgotten, Rays' starter Zach Eflin won his 13th game, which leads the American League. He went six innings and allowed just four hits.
In hindsight, it's a little surprising that the Rays didn't score until the fourth inning on a two RBI double by Basabe. They also scored in their next five innings, including a seven spot in the eighth.
In the first game, the Angels roughed up starter Tyler Glasnow, who had been on a solid run for the Rays. Granted, the Angels had two nibblers and a bloop go for hits in this second inning, but they also had some hard-hit balls. They got eight hits in all off Glasnow, plus an error, two wild pitches and a passed ball.
The Rays fell behind 6-2 and came back to within one run. But against the Angels’ pedestrian bullpen, the Rays had just three hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Tampa Bay did get home runs from Josh Lowe, Rene Pinto and Jonathan Aranda, but it wasn’t enough to get over the hump.
For the game, Lowe had three hits to up his average to .280. Yandy Diaz got two.
The Rays are off today and tomorrow. They play at Tropicana Field on Tuesday night against Colorado. Zack Littell is scheduled to start for Tampa Bay against Ty Blach for the Rockies.