The Rays swept the Kansas City Royals with a 5-3 victory at Kauffman Stadium this afternoon. Faria limited the damage on a day he was very shaky; the bullpen pitched over half the game; and the Rays used both small ball and power to score five runs.
Much like they did on Tuesday night, the Rays pounced early, putting up three runs in the first. The game started with a single for Denard Span and CJ Cron took a 91 mph fastball to what looked like the upper arm.
Wilson Ramos, undeterred by the end of his hitting streak, came through with a line drive single that was almost too hard because it the left fielder got to it too quickly to allow Span to round third. Bases were loaded for Brad Miller who did his job, hitting a hard grounder, but second baseman Whit Merrifield made a good play to keep it in the infield. Miller was out at first but that did allow the run to score, 1-0. Adeiny Hechavarria apparently does not like to leave any chicken on the bone; his single scored two more, to give the Rays yet another 3-0 lead to start the game.
But apparently our pitchers are so used to having no runs to work with that a 3 run early cushion just gets them out of the comfort zone. Or more likely, Jacob Faria just wasn’t sharp today. He opened the bottom of the first with a five pitch not even close walk. Jorge Solar, getting to a full count, lifted a high fly ball to left, where Denard Span caught it for the first out. Jon Jay decided it was plenty deep and tagged at first attempting to move up to second but Span caught it in a good position to throw, and got him at second. Probably not a great choice by Jay.
That heads up play was eradicated however by a really really bad one by Mallex Smith, who it seemed of late had gotten over some of the questionable outfield judgement we had seen last year. He was tracking a fly ball into the left central gap, and you could see Smith saying “I got it I got it” all the way. But I guess he saw Span in his peripheral vision because at the last minute he just gave up on it as though he assumed Span would take it even though Span had made no real move toward the ball. Smith tried to dive for it at the last minute before it hit the ground but it was too late and fell for a two base error. Fortunately Faria did not let himself get distracted by this mishap and struck out Salvador Perez. Mallex may feel some need to defer to the older and more experienced corner outfielders, especially as both Span and Gomez (when healthy) are former centerfielders who cover a lot of ground.
But Mallex, “I’ve got it” means ...you get it!
Faria continued his struggles with command to start the second, with another walk with four balls that nowhere near the plate. Fortunately he retired all the other batters, but his struggle with command was evident – this was not strategic nibbling and having a few calls go against him, this was “I have no idea where this pitch is going.” The Rays broadcast team even noted that the homeplate umpire, Rob Drake, is one who generally has a large strike zone and will make calls to benefit a pitcher if the pitcher can be even somewhat around the zone. But Faria could not take advantage of those generous calls.
In the top of the third, a C.J. Cron solo shot put a bit more distance between the Rays and Royals, making it 4-0. But in the bottom half of the inning Faria’s control problems once more threatened to give it all back. A single, a hit by pitch and a long at bat with Mike Moustakas that ended in a walk loaded the bases with one out. Fortunately for the Rays, the first pitch to Salvador Perez resulted in a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play. So far in this game, Salvador Perez, who had also struck out to end the first, was definitely the Rays MVP.
The Royals got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with a single, yet another walk, and two sac flies. The Rays did get that run back in the top of the fifth on an CJ Cron infield hit (not a common occurrence), followed by a nice hit and run with Joey Wendle providing the hit and Cron moving to third. He scored from there on a double play, 5-1 Rays.
But oh Jacob. In the bottom of the fifth, back to back doubles brought the Royals to within three. Standing on second with none out, Jorge Solar couldn’t help notice that there was pretty much no one on the left side of the infield. He more or less strolled to an unattended third base. Do we call it a steal when it’s been given to you? Standing on third he could easily score on a Mike Moustakas sac fly, and it was 5-3.
That was it from Faria, whose final line was 4.1 innings, three earned runs, two strike outs and four walks. He was lucky it wasn’t a lot worse. Chad Roe came in and a few crazy sliders later the inning was over.
And that was all the scoring although there were other threats on both sides.
Andriese pitched in and out of some trouble in the eighth, and Alex Colome had to give us the requisite lead off single in the ninth, because without the tying run at the plate how do we know we are alive? But I am nitpicking, because this win was courtesy of some great bullpen work.
I’m starting a new drinking game: I’m taking a swig whenever on of the broadcast team says that Joey Wendle plays the game the right way. No offense Joey, I’m sure you do play the game the right way, but then so does pretty much everyone on a professional baseball team.
On to Anaheim to take on the team that to me will always be the California Angels.