Thursday, 4 a.m.
So that’s the Aaron Civale the Tampa Bay Rays thought they had traded for.
Civale, pedestrian in his first two starts for the Rays, came back with six strong innings of shutout baseball in the Rays’ 6-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants Wednesday afternoon. He allowed only five hits and struck out five, improving his season’s record to 6-3.
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In his first two Rays’ outings, Civale had a loss and a no-decision and didn’t go more than five innings in either game.
Civale and the rest of the Rays’ pitchers took advantage of four double plays, impressive until you remember the record is seven (three teams).
The Rays’ on-again, off-again offense was on again. It collected 14 hits (it had 18 in the series opener, but only three in Game 2). The Rays also had three home runs.
Josh Lowe hit the opening homer of the game. Brandon Lowe hit his 100th homer of his career. Luke Raley hit a pinch-hit, inside-the-park home run, the first of its kind in Rays’ franchise history.
The Giants’ biggest threat came in the seventh inning when they scored their only run and loaded the bases with one out. Colin Poche got out of the inning by inducing a double play.
The Rays are off today, then move to Los Angeles to play the Angels at 9:38 p.m. on Friday. The Rays have not announced a starter, but the Angels will go with Tyler Anderson.