Rays 8, Angels 3: Margot, Rasmussen lead Rays to 4 game sweep

The Rays entered Thursday looking to complete a four game sweep of the Angels and extend their winning streak to a season high 6 games. They accomplished both objectives behind another strong start from Drew Rasmussen and solid offensive performances by a number of players.

Rasmussen continued his impressive streak of strong starts with 5.1 innings of one run baseball, striking out 9 in the process. The lone run he allowed was the result of a solo shot off the bat of Taylor Ward in the 4th inning. While he wasn't as sharp as his previous two outings (Perfect game bid and no-hit bid), he still managed to work into the sixth inning and qualify for the win. Over his last 79 batters faced, he has only surrendered 9 hits.

At the plate, the Rays jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning.

Margot came through with a two RBI triple to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.

Harold Ramirez then drove in Margot with a fielder’s choice. With Ramirez on base, Isaac Paredes sent a ball over the wall for his 16th homer of the year to give the Rays a 5-0 lead.

The Rays offense would take a break from scoring until the seventh inning when they would add on three more runs.

Yandy Diaz would first score on a wild pitch to extend the Rays lead to 6-1. Then, Harold Ramirez would drive in two more runs with single to center. The hit extended his hitting streak to a career high 11 games.

As for the pen, Poche followed Rasmussen and tossed 1.2 scoreless innings and struck out 2 batters. Ryan Thompson had the 8th inning and surrendered 2 runs on 4 hits. Finally, Armstrong came on to end the game and did so without any drama, locking up the 6th win in a row for the Rays.

After a deflating loss to end their most recent road trip in New York the Rays rebounded to take 7 of 8 games against the Royals and Angels at home. They took care of business against below .500 teams and will have the chance to continue doing so as they are headed to Boston next, and the Marlins after that.

The win moved their record to a season high 14 games over .500. For the moment they are only 7 games back of the first place Yankees, with 6 head to head matchups remaining against them.