Six Rays pitchers hold the Rockies to only one run while striking out a total of 12 batters.
ST. PETERSBURG — The locker room was bumpin’ yet again after the Tampa Bay Rays finished off the Colorado Rockies 7-1. Tonight marks their fourth straight win of the season, all of which have come against teams that made the playoffs last season.
The offense got off to a rather slow start getting no hit through the first three innings of the game. Brandon Lowe came up in the fourth inning with Ji-Man Choi on first after he singled up the middle. Lowe came into tonight’s game 0-9 with five strikeouts.
😘 it goodbye! (Literally)#RaysUp pic.twitter.com/HZARbRVgJ7
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 2, 2019
The home run was the first of the season for Lowe.
When Lowe was asked about getting the monkey off of his back — “Yeah, absolutely. Always seems to be elusive, the first one. Now it’s out of the way and I’m ready to pick it up and get going.”
Kevin Kiermaier came through with a blast of his own. His homer was also his first of the season. Kiermaier ended tonight tying a career high with four RBI.
“I put a good swing on it.” Kiermaier said talking about his home run. “Happy to see it go out of the park. Make a 3-1 lead and turn it into 6-1. That’s the thing I was most happy about.”
If you thought the 90 win Tampa Bay Rays were a fluke last season, boy were you mistaken.
Beastly bullpen
Through the first five games of the season, the Rays bullpen has been nothing short of amazing. Tonight marked the first time the bullpen has given up a run, a 6th inning RBI double by Nolan Arenado. That RBI ended a 17 inning scoreless streak for the relievers. The ‘pen has now tossed 21 innings with that being the lone blemish. That’s good for a 0.43 ERA. Amazing.
Ryan Yarbrough came into the game in the second, after the opener, Ryne Stanek struck out the side in the first.
“He mixed really well and he had a pretty electric cutter that he was able to get in on the righties. He threw the ball well and made big pitches. He kept them off balance just enough, but the cutter was probably the impressive pitch that I recognized from the side tonight.” Manager Kevin Cash said of Yarbrough.
Yarbrough had to stop the bleeding in the third, however. No, really. Not from allowing runners on base or anything. He literally caught a nose bleed.
“That was the weirdest experience I’ve ever had. I probably looked like an idiot.” Referring to the gauze he had stuff in his nose. “My phone was blowing up with my buddies texting me stupidity so I can’t wait to go over my texts.”
In all seriousness, Yarbrough pitched very well.
“It was good. Hopefully it’s something as a team [it’s] one of many. We are playing some really good baseball and having a lot of fun out there.”
Pham still streaking
After some confusion in the first inning — Tommy Pham reached base on an error which does not count towards his on-base streak — Pham walked in the 7th inning to officially extend his streak to 37 games.
Injury Update
The Rays have placed INF Joey Wendle on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain. The team has recalled INF Christian Arroyo from Triple-A Durham to replace Wendle on the roster.
Up Next
Blake Snell (0-1; 7.50) looks to bounce back into form after a rough start to the season squaring off against Kyle Freeland (1-0; 1.29) tomorrow night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. EST.
