Innings 1-3
The Rays’ first big chance (and missed opportunity) came in the second inning. Despite getting the first two men on base, Jesus Sucre jammed into a little doinker of a double play that the Braves easily turned two on. Rob Refsnyder then grounded to first (where Freddie Freeman made a not-easy play) to end any semblance of a threat.
And in the next inning, Ronald Acuna, The Chosen One, made the Rays pay with a line-drive homer that went approximately 742 feet in 0.8 seconds. It sucked the air out of the stadium and for a moment created a miniature black hole near the impact, evaporating with such force that the Sunshine Skyway swayed back and forth. Turns out the legends were true.
#Braves phenom Ronald Acuña Jr. hit another tape-measure blast for his third career homer:
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) May 9, 2018
Exit velocity: 108.5 MPH
Distance: 434 feet
Launch angle: 25 degrees
Watch live: https://t.co/5buegg2XDy pic.twitter.com/QL0EUGDLAn
Man it would be really cool if the Rays had some of those guys who could hit a lot of home runs really hard oh wait never mind
Innings 4-6
Snell looked pretty good save for that poor sequence to Acuna. He seemed to be working around a hit or a walk here or there, but he was mixing his pitches well, and managed to paint plenty of corners to generate some real swing-and-miss stuff. His curveball was as smooth as freshly opened sour cream, and as nasty as eight-month old sour cream. We’ve been having this conversation for the past month or so, but is Blake Snell the ace now? He’s turned a corner thus far, but still. Also, as a side note, why is it that people always seem to take more stock in breakout years for pitchers than hitters? Why is it always “oh, the pitchers will adjust to him and he will struggle more” for hitters? Not a lot of people see Blake Snell as riding a hot streak, nearly as much as people see Daniel Robertson, a player with several years of major league experience under his belt. Why is one “streaky” and the other “good,” at least this early in the season? This is a true question, I honestly don’t have the answer.
One answer I do have the answer for is: “Is Carlos Gomez a good fielder?”
.@RaysBaseball Carlos Gomez with the ridiculous sliding catch! #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/ydAjsKBW26
— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) May 9, 2018
Even if he strikes out four times in a game at the top of the lineup, we’ll still always have that slick slidin’. Also, note how he stunts on the batters as he’s walking off the field. Gomez gon’ Gomez.
The Braves led off the fifth inning with a triple to center, but the man was stranded a mere 90 feet away from scoring thanks to some slick defense by Adeiny Hechavarria. I mean, the Rays hadn’t had a guy at third base all night, and was making Newcomb look like freakin’ Cy Young, but you learn to live with the bad stuff pretty easily.
Innings 7-9
Blake Snell started the seventh inning, which was an unusual choice for the Rays, but Snell quickly repaid their confidence with a final strikeout to cap his outing at 6.1 innings. Although Snell only struck out 5 batters (low for him) he finished with 105 pitches and was economical with his stuff. The only major dink on his record today was that blast to Acuna. With the 8 and 9 men up, Cash called to the recently recalled Ryne Stanek. Stanek has shown flashes of brilliance in the minors, but has been unable to keep his walk rate down. Would Stanek be able to move past his command issues to pitch a clean inning in his return to baseball?
I mean, not really. See, Stanek struck out the side, but remember how I said he came in after one out? That’s because the runner managed to reach base on a strikeout thanks to a wild pitch. Stanek perpetually seems inches away from pulling a Rick Ankiel and sending the pitches to the backstop on a regular basis. Nevertheless in this particular inning, Stanek walked no one, and struck out three dudes for two outs.
The next inning was a bit more tenuous, for plenty of reasons. I’m not gonna lie, I missed the early part of this inning (#FakeFan) because I tuned into the final inning of the James Paxton no-hitter. After the fastest ninth inning in history probably, I tuned back in to see Hechavarria crumpled on the ground. It turned out that a sky high popper from Ronald Acuna smacked a catwalk and bounced into fair territory, coming up and clipping Hechavarria in the face. This is the definition of a freak accident, and had it happened to a team like the Orioles we’d all be wondering how we could break the hex.
Wendle moved over to shortstop as Hech left the game, and perhaps frazzled by the whole ordeal, Stanek’s shaky command nearly disappeared completely. After walking two guys to put a runner in scoring position, Stanek had to face the always dangerous Jose Bautista. Stanek buckled up and struck out Bautista, but this outing certainly does not inspire too much confidence, in, say, a close game.
The Rays made a little noise in the eighth but they infuriatingly did not score yet again. In the ninth inning Wilson Ramos led off the inning with a single but Smith (who pinch ran for him) was doubled off of first on a great defensive play) and the Rays did not score. Honestly I don’t have a ton to say about that because watching this team be unable to handle the Braves pitching makes me about as bummed as I can be. It’s frustrating to watch them fail to capitalize on opportunities and saddle Blake Snell with a hard-luck loss despite pitching like a stud most of the night. When the only damage you give up is a home run to a top prospect you expect to win the game. It wasn’t so tonight. This is the 17th one-run game the Rays have played in this season, and they have lost 12 of them.
It was still nice to see Jonny Venters pitch a clean inning, and get a nice set of claps from the Braves fans in attendance tonight. That was probably the highlight of the evening for me.