Friday, 4 a.m.
For most of the afternoon, the offense was asleep. There for a while, it may have been in a coma.
And then they struck. Again.
The Rays managed only four hits Thursday afternoon. Still, they won a 4-2 game over Minnesota, completing a sweep.
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There for a while, it didn’t look as if it was going to happen. The first 11 Rays were retired, including six straight by strikeout.
And then Randy Arozarena walked,
And Luke Raley tripled.
And Harold Ramirez homered.
Just like that, the Rays went from lethargy to the lead. Those two hits were half of the Rays’ total — Josh Lowe had the other two. But the Rays were lifted by the pitching — which allowed only three runs in three games to the Twins.
Yonny Chirinos, called up earlier in the day, got the win. He went 5 2/3 innings and allowed five hits and one run. Jason Adam got his 10th save, cruising through the ninth inning (which hasn’t always been the case).
“It took us a while to get going,” Rays’ manager Kevin Cash said. “(Bailey) Ober is a good pitcher.”
There will be some suspicion of Ober today. In the fourth inning, before the uprising, Ober’s hands were checked by the umpire, who made him wash them. The runs quickly followed.
“I just thought he was going to the bathroom,” Cash said.
Tonight, the Rays open a three-game series against another hot team, Texas, in a 6:40 p.m. game at Tropicana Field. Tyler Glasnow will start for the Rays against Andrew Heaney.