Hope Springs eternal: Rays 9, Yankees 0

I know I’ve said it before, but it remains true every time the Rays play host to the Yankees: I hate the crowds at these games. It’s a home game and yet all you can hear is cheering for the Yankees. It’s obnoxious and terrible and I hate it so much.

There was a little validation, though, as Josh Donaldson managed to embarrass himself after smack-talking Springs; and a replay review for fan interference was overturned. Take that traitor visiting fans.

Anyway, here’s how the game went...

Shaky-ish start for Springs in the first as he found his groove. Two quick outs kicked things off, then Benintendi doubled, and Stanton drew a walk. Thankfully no runs scored. The Rays made their own efforts against Yankees starter German in the bottom of the inning with Margot reaching on a one-out bunt, and while I fundamentally disagree with bunting when no runners are on, hey, it worked. Ramirez singled and advanced Margot to third, then an Arozarena fielder’s choice ended the inning.

The second went 1-2-3 for both sides.

Benintendi left the game with a wrist injury, pending x-rays. In the top of the second LeMahieu drew a one-out walk, then Judge reached on catcher’s interference. Springs got the next two outs. The Rays went down in order in the bottom of the inning.

A Torres single was the sole baserunner for the Yankees in the top of the fourth, and it was during the inning break that we saw signs of Donaldson lipping off to Springs (to be fair it looked pretty good-natured on both sides) but it was made kind of delightful in the bottom of the inning. Ramirez reached first on a bobble from Donaldson that should have been a routine out, and then Arozarena reached on a single that Donaldson overthrew on, the result of which was Arozarena ending up at third and Ramirez getting tagged out at home. A Peralta single then scored Arozarena. But Donaldson managed two errors in a single inning, a full 20% of his season errors. Lol. Rays up 1-0.

Top of the fifth Kiner-Falefa doubled, Judge walked, but no one scored. Bottom of the fifth saw a one-out single for Walls, then Diaz walked, but a Margot double-play ended the inning scoreless on both sides.

Donaldson grounded out to start the sixth, then Trevino singled. Hicks drew a two-out walk, and that was it for Springs who gave way to Chargois. Springs’ final line for the night was 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K on 97 pitches. Solid, solid night. Chargois finished off the inning. The broadcast booth briefly descended into madness trying to decide what a cat’s face is called after the mascot race (it’s a muzzle, guys, just a muzzle). Bottom of the sixth was just 1-2-3.

In the seventh Chargois got two outs and gave way to Poche, and between the two of them it was a clean inning. Bottom of the seventh was fun! Paredes got a one-out walk, then Bethancourt walloped a two-run homer to put the Rays up 3-0.

Jason Adam was the next out of the pen for the Rays and had a nice little 1-2-3. Margot singled to start the bottom of the inning, then Ramirez got a very deep one-out double, putting Margot on third. With two outs, Chang singled, then a throwing error from the pitcher allowed Margot and Ramirez to score and put Chang on second, putting the Rays up 5-0. Siri got a walk, then Bethancourt singled to load the bases. Walls drew a walk which forced in Chang and gave the Rays another run with the bases still loaded. Banda walked Diaz, again forcing in the run as Siri came home. Then Margot singled to score two runs, because why not?

Choi was then hit by a pitch, not the ideal way to re-load the bases, as he took the hit on his wrist. That was it for Banda. And Gonzalez was brought in to stop the bleeding and get the final out of the inning. But the Rays left with a nice, healthy 9-0 lead.

Faucher was in for the Rays in the ninth, hoping to complete the shutout. Hicks got a one-out single. They came awfully close to an inning-ending double play but Chang couldn’t manage to get the ball out of his glove and had to settle for one. And a final strikeout completed the shutout.

Final: Rays 9, Yankees 0