Saturday, 4 a.m.
For a team built on pitching, the season has been a bumpy one for the Tampa Bay Rays. Too many runs. Too many homers. Too many losses.
This, then, is what the Rays had in mind.
The Rays reached .500 again (47-47) with a 2-0 win over a formidable Cleveland Guardians team. Young Taj Bradley threw perhaps his sharpest game, going seven innings and spreading five hits. He struck out eight.
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Even after Bradley, the Rays were strong. Colin Poche and Jason Adam worked the eighth and ninth, and together, they struck five of the six batters they faced. Adam earned his fourth save by striking out the side in the ninth.
How good was the pitching? It was so good that it forgave an offense that kept sputtering.
For instance:
— The Rays were just one-for-16 with runners in scoring position.
— They left 11 men on base.
— They had back-to-back strikeouts (Josh Lowe and Jose ySiri) with the bases loaded and one man out in the seventh.
— Yandy Diaz was out at home twice on grounders to third.
— The Rays scored one run when Brandon Lowe grounded into a double play, the other when Diaz hit a soft double down the right field line.
In the end, none of it mattered. The Rays retired all four batters who came up with runners in scoring position.
For Bradley, it was his third straight win and his sixth straight outing in which he has allowed two runs or fewer. His confidence seems to be growing with every start.
On the night, Diaz had three hits (and had a liner to right caught in the bottom of the eighth). Josh Lowe and Alex Jackson each had two hits.
The Rays and Guardians will play again today at 4:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Zack Littell will start for Tampa Bay against Gavin Williams.