Offense explodes for five home runs in route of Oakland.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL – As the one-year anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shootings approaches, the Rays paid respects to the 49 victims during their 12th annual Pride Night pre-game ceremonies.
Earlier in the day, Mallex Smith would be recalled after the Rays put Kevin Kiermaier on the 10-day DL with a fractured hip. Smith would immediately make an impact.
Drawing a lead off walk, Smith would steal his fourth base with one out. Logan Morrison would draw a walk two batters later with Smith stealing third at the same time. Then, with two outs, Steven Souza Jr would deposit his 11th home run of the season into the left field seats. The Rays would take an early 3-0 lead over Oakland and their starter, Andrew Triggs.
Get ’em on, get ’em over, Sucre gets ’em in.
Tim Beckham led off the second with a single. Daniel Robertson would move him into scoring position with a ground out. Jesus Sucre, who’s hitting .409 with runners in scoring position, drove home the fourth run for the Rays with an RBI double, scoring Beckham. Mallex would single with one away and then steal his third base of the ballgame – a new career-high.
The Rays would leave two in scoring position, however, but take a 4-0 lead to the third.
In the third, Souza Jr would get on with a one-out single. Then advance to second on a wild pitch from Triggs. He’d then steal third, the fourth steal of the night for the Rays. Colby Rasmus would then single him home to push the lead to 5-0.
Let’s go to the fourth, shall we?
Number 0 continued to give Triggs fits. With Sucre leading off with a single, Mallex would follow up with a two-run home run, his first of the year. The Rays would lead 7-0. Two outs later, Morrison would hit his 17th home run of the year and make it 8-0. Souza Jr would then hit a “Tropicana Field Triple” as it seemed like he could have hit his second home run of the game off the left field catwalk. A crew chief review confirmed the call. Souza was now a double away from the cycle.
For the fifth straight inning, the Rays would pile it on the A’s. Beckham hit his career-high 10th home run to lead off. Then Robertson would follow with a triple. Sucre would continue to rake with runners in scoring position this year. He would notch his third hit in as many at bats and drive home “D-Rob” to make it a 10-0 ballgame – with no outs.
But wait – there’s more.
Corey gets in on the action.
With Sucre aboard, Mallex would seemingly ground out. However a throwing error would get him on to make way for Corey Dickerson. The Rays DH would blast his 14th home run and the team’s fifth of the night making it a 13-0 lead…in the bottom of the fifth.
The shutout would come to an end for Alex Cobb in the sixth. With two outs, Jed Lowrie would double to left center. Khris Davis would follow with an RBI single, driving home the first run for Oakland. Yonder Alonso would fly out to end the threat.
Stephen Vogt, would inch the Athletics closer with his fourth home run in the seventh off Ryan Garton. The Rays righty would then walk the first two men in the eighth. After two quick outs following the walks, Adam Rosales would drive home a run making it a 13-3 ballgame. Garton struck out Ryon Healy but a passed ball scores another run and keeps the inning alive. The Rays lead also cut to 13-4.
Danny Farquhar would get the final three outs in the ninth to secure the win on Pride Night.
Just two of tonight’s stars.#RaysWin! pic.twitter.com/Fy8qb3A6g0
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) June 10, 2017
UP NEXT:
- Saturday’s double-header. The Rays send out Erasmo Ramirez (3-1, 4.09) for game one at 2:10 PM. Game two will be Matt Andriese (5-1, 3.45) due to come off the DL tomorrow.
