Sogard’s ‘Nerd Power’ leads the Rays to a win over Miami

by Gary Shelton on August 4, 2019 · 0 comments

in general, Tampa Bay Rays

Sogard had five RBI in his first game at the Trop as a Ray./JEFFREY S. KING

Sunday, 4 a.m.

Let's hear it for the Nerd.

Sogard has made a quick splash with the Rays./JEFFREY S. KING

And while we're at it, how about a shoutout for the geeks, the dweebs and the dorks, too.

Eric Sogard, the recently acquired second baseman of the Tampa Bay Rays, and a man who has embraced the 'Nerd Power' nickname (he sells t-shirts with the label attached), powered the high-scoring Rays to their fifth straight victory, an 8-6 decision over the Florida Marlins.

Sogard, a trade deadline pickup, hit two home runs, a two-run shot and a three-run shot, to lead the Rays to their victory.

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Adames had a big night for Tampa Bay./JEFFREY S. KING

It was a familiar sight for the Rays, who have now won six straight games. The Rays have scored six runs or more in six straight games. The Rays had 11 hits, just one shy of getting 12 for the sixth straight game. It has been a rare sighting of offense by the Rays. The Rays hit four home runs for the fifth time this season.

Meadows homered in his third straight game./JEFFREY S. KING

"Eric Sogard – what a day he had,"said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. “He’s been outstanding. Just the quality of his at-bats. The home runs, obviously, are very nice. He walks up there and he’s got an approach, a plan, he sticks with and right now if he gets his pitch, he’s really doing some damage with it.”

Said Sogard: "I didn’t feel anything different. I think it was good to be here and felt like home for the first time, rather than being on the away side. Got some good pitches to hit and I was able to put the barrel on them.”

Tampa Bay also had home runs from Austin Meadows and Willy Adames. Meadows, Sogard and Adames all had two hits. Adames now has four homers  and

Pagan finished with his eighth save of the year./JEFFREY S. KING

seven RBI in his last six games

“He’s a young player. Got a chance to be a very special player. We’ve talked about that many times now. It was really encouraging what he did on the road trip and now that he’s carried it over after the day off with the big hit was nice. Willy’s defense — he’s played Gold Glove caliber shortstop for us this year. He’s really made some strong improvements from early-on, even from last year. I know today quirky plays came into play. But we feel really good when the ball’s hit to him.”

Adames is hitting .364 in his last six games.

Said Adames: "I was just trying to keep up with Sogard."

Anderson has looked good so far for the Rays./JEFFREY S. KING

The Rays were good at the end on the mound, with Emilio Pagan earning his eighth save, Nick Anderson getting the win and Chaz Roe throwing two solid innings. But Jalen Beeks struggled, allowing three earned runs in four innings.

Cash liked the finishing combo of Anderson and Pagan.

“That’s two times now that they’ve thrown together," Cash said. "They seem to match up well. We know Emilio pretty well. Nick Anderson’s making quite an impression. Just love the fact that he comes in and attacks. Throws a bunch of strikes. That’s not easy doing that against a group of guys that you were sharing lockers with five days ago. It looked like he kind of flushed that to the side and went out there and executed pitches.”

The Rays go for the sweep of their two-game series with the Marlins today at 1:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Yonny Chirinos will pitch for the Rays against Caleb Smith of Miami.

Chaz Roe threw two innings, giving up one run./JEFFREY S. KING

 

 

 

 

 

 

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