Game Recaps

Rays 3, Yankees 5: Souza can't do it all, bullpen day ends predictably, Rays swept

The Rays are aching for their starting pitchers to come back.

By Brett Phillips Apr 19, 2015, 5:05pm EDT

The Yankees put the leadoff man on base for the first seven innings. Per Wikipedia:

Lingchi (simplified Chinese: 凌迟; traditional Chinese: 凌遲; pinyin: líng chí; Wade–Giles: ling-ch'ih, alternately transliterated ling chi or leng t'che), translated variously as death by a thousand cuts (simplified Chinese: 杀千刀; traditional Chinese: 殺千刀) or "千刀万剐", the slow process, the lingering death, or slow slicing, was a form of torture and execution used in China from roughly AD 900 until it was banned in 1905.

Innings 1-3

Not the greatest of starts for Andriese. The Yankees would put men in scoring position in each of the first five innings, four of which came against Andriese. Matt allowed a leadoff single to Jacoby Ellsbury just out of the reach of Tim Beckham's glove. On the next pitch to Brett Gardner, Andriese came set and then threw over the first base in a kind of weird, Carter Capps hoppy motion. Balkin' Bob Davidson called it a balk from third base pretty much immediately. I honestly don't really know how balks work, and I have no frame of reference to say if it was an absurd call, but BA and Staats didn't seem to mind too much.

Brett Gardner bunted Ellsbury to third base, and A-Rod walked to put runners at the corners with one out. Mark Teixeira then hit a very hard line drive to right field that A-Rod must've thought would land, because he was halfway down the line when Souza caught it. Souza nearly beat him back to first with his throw, but was a little bit off-line. Yankees take the early lead.

The Rays would strike back pretty quickly on a two-run Souza bomb to left. Brett Gardner appeared to be planted underneath it, but the ball seemed to have plenty of backspin on it and it carried...and carried:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Third homer in 7 G for Souza. He's tied with <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueJays">@BlueJays</a> Devon Travis for <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB">@MLB</a> lead among rookies. Nearly scraped roof of the dome. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RaysUp?src=hash">#RaysUp</a></p>— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball/status/589844326068289536">April 19, 2015</a></blockquote>

He's got some power.

The second inning also started poorly for Matt Andriese. A walk and a single against the shift with no outs was concerning, but John Ryan Murphy flew out to center, and Andriese was able to snag a Didi Gregorius groundball back up the middle to turn an inning-ending double play. After that, Michael Pineda only allowed a seeing-eye single to Tim Beckham in the second to retire the Rays.

The Yankees took the lead in the third inning when they would just not stop hitting the ball. Rene Rivera was able to erase a leadoff single from Jacoby Ellsbury when he threw a strike to nab the stealing Ellsbury at second, but Andriese couldn't take advantage of the shift in momentum, giving up a single and a double to Gardner and A-Rod. Mark Teixeira grounded out to tie the game, and Chase Headley singled up the middle to nab the lead.

Innings 4-6

Andriese wasn't able to stop the bleeding, but he didn't get a lot of help from Desmond Jennings. A sinking line-drive single from Garrett Jones turned into a stand-up triple when Jennings dove and missed the ball, letting it roll almost to the wall behind him. A John Ryan Murphy sac fly and a Gregorius single later, and Andriese was outta there. Let the bullpen day begin:

Steve Geltz came in and retired the first couple of men he faced. In the bottom of the inning, Desmond Jennings singled to lead off the inning and would later steal second, but neither Dykstra, Guyer, nor Beckham would even get the ball out of the infield.

In the top of the fifth, Chase Headley doubled home Alex Rodriguez and Geltz would cede the ball to Brandon Gomes, making his first relief appearance of the year. Gomes struck out Murphy with a little help from Longoria, who took a great chance in letting a nubber of a ground ball skip past him, turning foul inches before hitting third base.

The Rays trimmed the deficit in bottom of the fifth, more or less solely on the back of Steven Souza Jr. David DeJesus singled to left and Souza doubled him home via a groundball that skirted just by the outstretched glove of Chase Headley by third base. He'd be stranded on base, however, when our #3 and #4 hitters couldn't get anything going. Gomes got through the sixth with little problem, too, pitching around a leadoff single to Didi Gregorius.

Pineda would leave, having pitched 5.2 innings and allowed seven hits and five strikeouts. Chris Martin would then enter, hitting Brandon Guyer with a 1-2 inside fastball, but striking out the pinch-hitting Kevin Kiermaier with a high 94 mph fastball. Kiermaier, visibly frustrated, threw his bat on the ground as the game went to commercial.

Innings 7-9

The Yankees put the leadoff man on (surprise, surprise!), but Gomes got two more outs before being pulled for DRB Golden Boy Ernesto Frieri. Frieri allowed a single and a walk but struck out Didi Gregorius with the bases loaded, ensuring that there would be no challenges to the throne:

Rene Rivera somehow managed to slap the ball against the shift and scored a single off of Martin. The Yankees then pulled Martin and brought in Justin Wilson. The Rays countered with a Logan Forsythe substitution, but despite a wild pitch from Wilson that came within millimeters of grazing Forsythe, Logan couldn't push him over. Dellin Betances, he of the 98 mph heater, entered to face Souza, and struck him out with 5 straight breaking pitches. Cabrera rolled over on a curveball himself, and grounded out to end any semblance of a threat.

Frieri and Betances traded goose eggs in the eighth. Frieri managed to pitch a 1-2-3 inning, the first one of the game for the Rays. Jennings drew a one-out walk, but Betances made Dykstra look absolutely silly, and drew a towering pop fly from Guyer. Erasmo Ramirez (!) entered for the ninth (!!) and pitched another 1-2-3 inning w/ 8 pitches (!!!!!) Andrew Miller allowed an early double to Ryan Brett, but struck out the side while utilizing an absolutely insane slider low-and-inside to every right handed hitter he faced. Really, it was an impressive job, and even Souza (who was a triple short of a cycle today) looked totally lost.

Desmond Jennings now leads the AL in SB with 5, and Steven Souza is right behind him with 4 SBs. It's nice to see the team go back to the Runnin' Rays that were so much fun to watch for so long.
The Rays get swept by the Yankees at home for the first time since September 2005. Even though they put a runner on base in every inning, they were 0-for-8 w/RISP, as many of you pointed out in the GDT:

<thead>

<tr>

</tr>

</thead>

<tbody>

<tr><td width=150>Total comments</td><td>254</tr>

<tr class="alt"><td>Total commenters</td><td>27</tr>

<tr><td>Commenter list</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Adam%20Sanford">Adam Sanford</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Brett%20Phillips">Brett Phillips</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Brickhaus">Brickhaus</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/BucoffBuddy">BucoffBuddy</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/DFAHowell">DFAHowell</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Dome%20Biscuit">Dome Biscuit</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Drew%20Laing">Drew Laing</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Estivage">Estivage</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Gator%20Bait89">Gator Bait89</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Landlord">Landlord</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Noles95'">Noles95'</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Passionate%20Apathy">Passionate Apathy</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Rays1118">Rays1118</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Yoko%20Longo">Yoko Longo</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/all%20pRays">all pRays</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/downtownres">downtownres</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/essenpee">essenpee</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/kapaafire">kapaafire</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/kfharlock">kfharlock</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/killa3312">killa3312</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/lizzieray">lizzieray</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/magicrays">magicrays</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/nomo.red.evil">nomo.red.evil</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/raysfan81">raysfan81</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/tampa_edski">tampa_edski</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/the%20dobber">the dobber</a>, <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/toofamiliar17">toofamiliar17</a></tr>

<tr class="alt"><td>Story URLs</td><td><div><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet">http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet</a></div>

</tbody>

</table>

<thead>

<tr>

<th width=60># Recs</th><th>Commenter</th><th>Comment Link</th>

</tr>

</thead>

<tbody>

<tr>

<td>5</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/essenpee">essenpee</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300809432">good</a></td>

</tr>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>4</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/the%20dobber">the dobber</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300812324">You're insufferable. That's saying a lot coming from me.</a></td>

</tr>

<td>4</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/kfharlock">kfharlock</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300809962">You are exhausting to read.</a></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>2</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Brett%20Phillips">Brett Phillips</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300820572">welcome to drays1118bay</a></td>

</tr>

<td>1</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Brett%20Phillips">Brett Phillips</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300850334">Jesus, the sky is not falling here, good God.</a></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>1</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/nomo.red.evil">nomo.red.evil</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300851078">or we'll win two of our next three cuz baseball is weird and momentum is tomorrow's starting pitcher</a></td>

</tr>

<td>1</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/Brett%20Phillips">Brett Phillips</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300837158">I just want Souza to hit a triple and get the cycle.</a></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>1</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/kfharlock">kfharlock</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300815940">It's a hard thing to quantify, but</a></td>

</tr>

<td>1</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/nomo.red.evil">nomo.red.evil</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300813162">Damn. That's like Eeyore bailing on you cuz you're too damn depressing</a></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>1</td><td><a href="http://www.sbnation.com/users/magicrays">magicrays</a></td><td><a href="http://www.draysbay.com/2015/4/19/8438965/gdt-are-the-jeter-jokes-old-yet#300832566">O'Conner jacks his 3rd HR of the season!</a></td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

The Rays play the Red Sox on Tuesday, and Chris Archer will try his very best not to show up David Ortiz.

Rays 3, Yankees 5: Souza can't do it all, bullpen day ends predictably, Rays swept

Share this story

Share All sharing options for: Rays 3, Yankees 5: Souza can't do it all, bullpen day ends predictably, Rays swept

More From DRaysBay

Share this story

All sharing options for: Rays 3, Yankees 5: Souza can't do it all, bullpen day ends predictably, Rays swept