Rays Pound Blue Jays, Ride Zobrist and Hawpe to 13-1 Victory

For starting this road trip off on a bad foot - losing two of three to both the Orioles and Red Sox - the Rays have managed to pull themselves together. They nearly lost yesterday after jumping out to a six run lead, but today's game was a lot less dramatic. The Rays scored six runs in the fourth inning and from that point on, Wade Davis held the Blue Jays down.

Pitching has been the Rays' downfall on this road trip; before today, they'd only once held an opposing team to fewer than four runs. Wade Davis may not have been spectacular today, but his performance got the job done. He went seven innings while allowing seven hits, giving up three walks, and striking out six. He let up one run - a solo homerun by Lyle Overbay in the fourth inning - and made the Blue Jays swing and whiff at both his fastball (six times, 9%) and curveball (two times, 20%). While his fastball's velocity decreased late in the game, Davis was hitting 95-96 MPH for the majority of the game, blowing those fastballs by the Jays.

Offensively, the Rays were led by Ben Zobrist and Brad Hawpe. After earning our scorn with his prolonged slump, Zobrist has been hitting the ball hard over this road trip. He has a .983 OPS and a .421 wOBA over the last seven days, and he cranked out two doubles last night and hit balls hard in his other at bats. And Brad Hawpe - well, I'm really beginning to like him. Hawpe broke the game open in the fourth inning with a grand slam off Ricky Romero, justifying Maddon's decision to start him against a lefty pitcher. While it may have seemed like an odd decision before the game started, Maddon always has his reasons. Hawpe has been hitting the ball well since coming to the Rays and I hope he keeps it up. 

• Wade Davis has shown some flashes of ability in the second half this season, and when you look at his underlying statistics, he's had a very similar year to what David Price put up in 2009. Davis doesn't come with Price's pedigree and so I wouldn't expect Davis to become another ace, but as today showed, he's certainly got promise moving forward.
• Desmond Jennings had his first major league hit. In the eighth inning, DJ pinch-hit for Upton and laced a double down the rightfield line. Off the bat it looked like questionable if it'd be a double or single, but Jennings cracked up his speed and motored into second base easily. 
• I think Maddon must lead the American League in times that he's taken the DH out of the game. After using multiple pinch-hitters late in the game, Maddon put Hawpe out in rightfield for the eighth and ninth innings. Luckily no balls went his way...