Rays: 6, Royals: 1 - Hey Siri, Lets Play Two!

Lets try this again! Rays kick off the second half of the season with a three game set against the Royals and TWO of those games happening today!

Before the game, Rays got a visit from a long time friend:

In the 1st inning, Wander hit the ball hard at 103.4 MPH and with a .900 xBA but right at Royals’ second baseman Nicky Lopez for the out.

Rays’ first baserunner came in the 2nd inning of a Jonathan Aranada single, but Taylor Walls struck out for the last out.

Jose Siri got the offense started for the Rays with a moonshot, flashing fresh power coming off a week of no games. On the Rays Radio broadcast, Doug Waechter told a story of talking with Jose Siri a few weeks ago about his power hitting approach and learned he does something a bit unintuitive for major league hitters. Where most players are looking fastball and reacting breaking ball, Jose Siri has broken out at the plate this year by sitting breaking ball and reacting to the fastball, evidence of his own trust in his quick hands to react to hard stuff.

Rays take an early 1-0 lead

Brandon Lowe doubled later in the inning but couldn’t score as Wander struck out and Randy lined out to end the inning.

Glasnow had a strong start, but the 2nd inning started out with a walk to Nicky Lopez. After striking out Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr hit a high fly ball that looked liked it was going into no mans land behind first base and right field. BUT Luke Raley and his 84th percentile sprint speed tracked it down for the 2nd out of the game.

Even after a Sal Perez single to put two runners on Glasnow got out of the inning.

In the top of the 5th inning, after two strikeouts by Walls and Siri, Francisco Mejia reached for a changeup at the bottom of the zone and pulled it to the right field seats for the 2nd run of the night.

Kansas City answered right back with a solo home run by Bobby Witt Jr. to cut the Rays lead in half.

Kansas City almost tied it on the next batter, as Sal Perez hit a deep fly ball to left center field, but was ruled a double due to fan interference, although I don’t think it would’ve been a Home Run either way.

Besides a couple of walks and the solo shot, Glasnow looked great. He went 6.0 IP with 6 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, and 7 Ks with 16 swings and misses on 95 pitches

Jason Adam was called on to relive Glasnow and had a scorless inning! With no baserunners!

During the top of the 8th inning, the Rays patient approach paid off as they worked 3 back to back to back walks to load the bases for Luke Raley.

A two run single by Raley gives the rays a 4-1 lead, and puts runners on 1st and 3rd. Josh Lowe was the next batter up and hit a sac fly to score Arozarena from 3rd.

If four insurance runs weren’t enough, Josi Siri took his new approach to the plate and hit another solo HR!

Javy Guerra worked a 2.0 IP save with 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, and 2Ks to seal the first win of the day.

Game 2 of the doubleheader is at 7:10 PM with Shawn Armstrong opening.