Rays 3, Brewers 5: Old friend alert

Welcome back. Willy Adames. The former Rays’ shortstop was welcomed warmly by fans and the home dugout alike as he made his turn to Tropicana Field tonight, and it was nice to see his familiar smile on the field again.

For the Rays, there weren’t a lot of familiar faces when it came to squaring off against the Brewers, and this unusual little two-game series was a hard one to predict. Shane Baz was up for the Rays and Brandon Woodruff took the mound for the Brewers.

It took a while before any runs scored.

Adames was actually the first player of the game to collect a hit, with a one-out single in the top of the first. Baz then gave up a walk to Tellez, but two more outs safely ended the inning. The Rays went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first. The second inning was entirely three-up-three-down for both sides.

In the third Baz gave up a long single to Yelich, but a fielder’s choice off the bat of Adames erased Yelich and the inning ultimately ended scoreless. The Rays went down in order for the bottom half.

The fourth inning was another 1-2-3 for Baz, but the bottom of the inning saw the Rays finally get some offense working. Diaz doubled to kick things off, then the next two batters were out, but an Arozarena single brought Diaz home and put the Rays on top 1-0 at the end of four. That was also the end of the night for Woodruff.

Baz allowed a leadoff walk in the top of the fifth to Narvaez, but a Taylor double play ended the threat, and no Brewers runs would score. The Rays once again went down in order in the bottom half of the inning.

The sixth was where things went terribly wrong for the Rays. Yelich singled to kick things off, then stole second. Baz’s night was done after a Tellez strikeout, but I’m not going to post his line just yet and you’ll soon see why. With Wisler barely in the game, he gave up a home run to McCutchen scoring himself and Yelich and giving the Brewers the lead. Baz’s final line for the night was 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K on 95 pitches. It was actually a good night for Baz, just unfortunately undone by Wisler’s entrance. Wisler wasn’t quite done yet though. Wong got a ground-rule double right along the right-field foul line, then Urias homered to get another two runs across. Narvaez singled, but no further damage was done. Still, the Brewers now had a 4-1 lead.

Diaz got a one-out single to start the bottom half of the inning, and Ramirez also singled, but it wasn’t enough to get a run in.

Garza Jr. was up next for the Rays in the seventh. Peterson singled to start Garza’s inning, then advanced on a passed ball. Adames got a one-out walk, but Garza was able to wrap things up with no runs scored. Parades made it safely to first in the bottom of the inning on a fielding error from Urias. However the next three batters were out in order making Paredes’ efforts for nothing.

Garza’s luck wouldn’t last in the eighth as Wong got a one-out walk, then Urias doubled to score Wong, but got himself out trying to hustle his double into a triple. Oops. In the bottom of the inning Phillips and Diaz drew back-to-back walks. Those walks would haunt as Franco hit a sac fly to score Phillips, and a Ramirez groundout scored Diaz. Arozarena singled and that was it for reliever Alexander. Parades drew a walk next, but a groundout into a fielder’s choice ended the inning with no more runs.

In the top of the ninth Armstrong was in for the Rays and managed a nice, tidy 1-2-3. Sadly, so were the Rays in the bottom of the inning, and that was curtains for the Rays.

Final: Brewers 5, Rays 3