Rays 4, Rangers 3: 50 Strikeouts of Gray

This was one of those games where the key moments happened in fits and starts, with a lot of quiet time in the middle, so with that in mind, a good old-fashioned Tweetcap is on the menu for today.

The starters for both teams did impeccable work, but I’m afraid I have to say that Jon Gray was basically untouchable for the Rangers, making it very hard for the Rays to find an answer to two early home runs that put the Texas club on the board.

There was, however, an incredible catch courtesy of everyone’s favorite outfielder, and the best part of this is, it’s somehow not even the best Brett Phillips catch of the season.

Jeffrey Springs had five strong innings, but two solo home runs were definitely the biggest ding against him. Ultimately he went 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 2 HR on 85 pitches. I think if the Rays' offense had better luck earlier on there really wouldn’t have been much to complain about from Springs’ performance, and he certainly wasn’t helped by some egregious calls from the home plate umpire that missed strikes perfectly on the lines of the zone. The Rangers had one or two similarly poor calls, but they certainly did no favors for the Rays especially.

I still can’t get used to calling him Nathaniel.

Jon Gray really was the big story of the night, going 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 12 K, 1 HR on 94 pitches. The Randy Arozarena home run was what ultimately chased him from the game, but what a night.

The Rangers had a few nice defensive plays of their own. The Rays contested this call, but there wasn’t a good enough angle to overturn it, so Yandy was ruled out.

Arozarena kept the Rays out of another scoreless game.

And some well-played baserunning from Mejia, and a perfect hit from Harold tied things up.

Onward to extras.

Oh no.

The Rangers loaded the bases in the bottom of the tenth but couldn’t manage the walk-off. Onto the eleventh. In the eleventh Choi was given a called swinging strike on what was clearly a check swing, and Choi got visibly livid at the call, then Cash came out of the dugout, visibly pulled the gum/seeds out of his cheek so he didn’t accidentally spit it on the umpire, and proceeded to aggressively suggest the ump just ask for a second look perhaps, maybe, you big dumb umpire. Anyway, Choi hit a double to get the go-ahead run. Then Diaz got hit by a pitch to put two men aboard.

Then a long out from Randy had hilarious results as he caused a little confusion on the basepaths as to who was and wasn’t eligible for a tagout. Technically Randy was out twice in one inning. Okay, not technically, but it happened.

Final: Rays 4, Rangers 3 (11)