Yarbrough’s return lifts Rays to another win

by Gary Shelton on August 19, 2021

in general

Thursday, 4 a.m.

By the time he was finished, it was the Baltimore Orioles who felt sickly. Frankly, Ryan Yarbrough left their bats on the injured list Wednesday night.

Yarbrough, the Rays' left-handed pitcher, bounced back from testing positive for Covid with one of his strongest outings of the season, coming on in the second inning and pitching five innings of one-hit shutout baseball in the Rays' 8-4 victory over the Orioles.

Yarbrough, who gave up nine hits in his last outing against the Orioles on August 6, was in control for the Rays. Tampa Bay now leads the New York Yankees by five games in the AL East.







Content beyond this point is for members only.

Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!

Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.

“I think when you have that amount of time off, you have some time to really think about some things," Yarbrough said. "I didn’t think I was in the greatest of grooves. You’re able to dwell on what you’re doing well and what you're not, to really go back and figure what you can do differently. It was kind of a blessing in disguise on that front."

The Rays had fallen behind 2-0 with Louis Head on the mound as an opener. But once again, the Rays' bats beat up on the Orioles' pitching. Rookie Wander Franco had three hits and two RBI. Ji-Man Choi also had two hits and two RBI.

“It was amazing how efficient (Yarbrough) was and how good his stuff was for not  having his normal routine," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "He had a pretty broken period there wjere there wasn’t a lot he could do. He picked us up in a big way, and he did it against a team that has had some success against him and has seen him a lot. That just speaks to how good he was. He was able to quiet that lineup."

The Rays, 14-1 against Baltimore this season, go for a four-game sweep today in a 1:10 p.m. game at Tropicana Field. Shane McClanahan will start for the Rays against Jorge Lopez.

Previous post:

Next post: