Friday, 4 a.m.
Maybe you recognized them by their explosuin in the third inning. Maybe you knew them from the line of zeroes their opponent kept putting up on the scoreboard.
By George, those are the Tampa Bay Rays.
And that's the way they are supposed to look.
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It has been a grind recently for the Rays, who hadn't won back-to-back games for 10 days. They had played four in a row without scoring more than four. Coming into the game, they had lost six of their previous 10 games.
That all ended Friday when the Rays broke out early and cruised to a 6-1 victory over a superb Arizona team. The Rays scored five times in the third inning and rolled.
Wander Franco had a two-run triple and Josh Lowe had a two-run single in the outburst. Luke Raley had a home run in the first inning.
Franco, Raley and Harold Ramirez all had two hits for the Rays.
Just as impressive was the pitching performance, especially the six innings of one-run baseball thrown by Yonny Chirinos Chirinos gave up seven hits and three walks, but he was ahead of most of the batters and the Rays turned two double plays behind him.
The Rays seemed to feed off the energy granted by Wednesday night's 3-2 comeback win over Arizona.
The Rays now move to Seattle. Shane McClanahan will start for the Rays against Bryce Miller of the Mariners.