ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays will enter maybe a very powerful week of their season with full momentum.
Attacking from the opening inning, the Rays rolled to a 6-3 victory in opposition to the Mariners on Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field, permitting them to take the ultimate three contests of the four-game collection collection, which properly arrange a their essential highway swing in opposition to the division-leading Twins (American League Central) and Orioles (AL East).
“We knew coming in that this was a very good team, maybe the hottest team in the American League,” supervisor Kevin Cash mentioned. “We knew we needed to play properly, and I felt like we did.
“Now we play a Minnesota team we haven’t seen in quite some time, and obviously they’ve done a lot of good things to be in first place for the bulk of the year. We just want to play well and not worry about [Baltimore] until we get there. We know we have plenty of challenges ahead, but we’ve got to feel good winning this [series].”
Right-hander Zach Eflin, who moved to 14-8 and tied Toronto’s Chris Bassitt and Baltimore’s Kyle Gibson for the AL lead in wins, labored within the fourth and fifth innings earlier than giving approach to 4 scoreless innings from the bullpen. Relievers Shawn Armstrong, Robert Stephenson, Colin Poche and Pete Fairbanks every pitched a scoreless inning.
“Our bullpen has been pretty special of late, just making big pitch after big pitch,” Cash mentioned.
In a 14-game span since Aug. 26, Rays relievers have registered an MLB-leading 1.10 ERA.
“Our bullpen has been absolutely lights-out,” Eflin mentioned.
The quick-striking Rays offense supplied an early cushion.
Harold Ramírez smacked a two-run double within the first inning off Mariners starter Bryce Miller, then Josh Lowe adopted with an RBI double, placing the Rays up, 3-0.
The benefit was prolonged to 5-0 within the third. Lowe led off with a hustle double on a liner to the left-center-field hole, then Jose Siri reached on a superbly executed bunt. Luke Raley introduced them each in with a double down the first-base line.
Lowe (3-for-4) matched a profession excessive for hits and doubles (two) in a sport. In 33 video games since July 30, he’s batting .322 (37-for-115) with eight doubles, one triple, 5 residence runs and 21 RBIs.
“I’ve been seeing the ball better, and I feel like I saw it really well today,” Lowe mentioned. “I feel like our starters and bullpen are the best in the league, so it’s huge to give them an early lead and let them do the rest. I think other teams feel that, too. We get ahead of them, then they feel the pressure to score and they might try to do too much.”
Eflin was touched for 2 runs within the fourth inning and one other within the fifth — produced by six singles — however by no means surrendered a very damaging hit.
The Rays bought one other insurance coverage run within the sixth. Osleivis Basabe led off with a double in opposition to Mariners reliever Eduard Bazardo. Seattle performed with the infield in after a grounder despatched Basabe to 3rd, however Christian Bethancourt slapped an RBI single by the outlet between third base and shortstop, placing Tampa Bay up, 6-3.
Eflin earned his fiftieth profession victory and his eleventh win at Tropicana Field this season, surpassing Blake Snell in 2018 for probably the most single-season residence wins in franchise historical past.
“It sucks for me to only go five innings, especially at home, and I don’t like that,” Eflin mentioned after his 83-pitch effort. “My command felt fairly spotty. But our bullpen got here in and completely shut the sport down.
“We’ve felt good about this team the entire year. This is why we play — for the big games against division leaders. We’re all excited to do it. We’re excited to go against Minnesota and Baltimore and take that into the end of September and into the postseason.”
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