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That game was awful to watch. Not only because the Rays got swept by the now first-place Cleveland Indians, but also because the Rays were never in it. By the fifth batter of the game you could have turned this one off.
Logan Forysthe singled to start the game but was immediately doubled up, and Longoria grounded out to shortstop to end the inning. And then Chris Archer came on and the beginning was entirely too familiar. Archer struggled with his command, walking the first batter he faced on five pitches.
Against Jason Kipnis, he located a fastball on the outside beautifully, before working the outside with two changeups (one fouled, one for a ball). Maybe he had thought he had slowed Kipnis's bat down with the soft stuff. Probably he just missed his spot. The result was a fastball grooved right down the middle that Jason Kipnis drove out to deep center field. Game over.
After a groundout, Archer walked the next batter, who would come around to score when a chopper found a hole in the infield.
A pair of doubles tagged on a run in in the fourth, and the the Indians tagged on a pair of runs against Matt Andriese in the seventh.
Trevor Bauer was very good. He threw a complete game with 10 strikeouts. He has a lot of pitches, but today his curve was pretty untouchable. Or at least the Rays couldn't touch it.
Some other notes:
- Logan Morrison made a baserunning mistake while Francisco Lindor made a really good play to dive, snag the ball, and then get Morrison straying off third.
- I'm sorry there's not a longer, more unhappy recap, but I've had a pretty rough day at work, and my heart is really not in this one.
- Very little was fun about the game. But this was sort of fun. The umpire was right, I think.