Saturday, 4 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Rays always rely on their pitching to pave the way to victory.
Friday night, every other pitcher did it.
The Rays beat Toronto, 3-1, with occasional great pitching. Tampa Bay drew to 24-26 on the season.
Often, every other pitcher won’t do it. But check it out. Starter Drew Rasmussen threw six shutout innings of four-hit baseball. It was the second straight outing in which Rasmussen has held the opponent scoreless. Nice outing, right?
But after Rasmussen, Mason Montgomery had a horrid outing. He faced three batters and walked them all. He threw 17 pitches, and just five were for strikes. Pretty rough, huh?
Wait. After Montgomery, Manny Rodriguez came in with the bases loaded and no one out. He got a double play ball from Jonatan Clase (the Jays’ only run scored), then got a fly out to help the Rays escape.
Edwin Uceta came in after that. He was able to get out of the inning scoreless, but not before he walked two (five in two innings).
After that, Pete Fairbanks came in for his ninth save.
The Rays got a two-run homer from Brandon Lowe and a solo shot (his second in two nights) from Curtis Mead. Junior Caminero and Danny Jansoen each had two hits.
The Rays, however, were 0-7 with runners in scoring position.
The Rays and Jays play again today at 7:05 p.m. at Steinbrenner Field. Shane Baz will start for the Rays against Jose Berrios.