Rays rally to a 4-3 walk-off victory. This marks their eighth walk-off win of the season.
Starter, and birthday boy, Tyler Glasnow, continued to impress his new team despite giving up three runs over five innings.
“I thought Tyler was good. He was challenged a little bit. I know that last inning he would have wanted to get through that inning without giving up a run,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said when asked about Glasnow’s outing. “Watching him. How much he cares. The accountability. He was visibly upset with himself at the end. We’re sitting there building a guy up. Five innings – three runs, is that ideal, no. He recognizes that so it’s fresh to see that. It’s been good.”
Glasnow ended with eight strikeouts in those five innings. He did walk three, although one was intentional. According to stat cast, Glasnow maxed his fastball out at 99.4 mph tonight.
This marked the 11th times a Rays pitcher has pitched on his birthday, with the last being Jake Faria who did so on July 30, 2017 at the New York Yankees.
KK battled and battled and battled
In his first at-bat of the night, Kevin Kiermarier was sent down looking.
In his second at-bat, his counterpart, Brett Phillips did his best Kevin Kiermarier impression as he dove and robbed Kiermarier of a base hit that would have scored a run.
In his third at-bat, he roped a single up the middle, but the pitch, Kevin McCarthy made a great play to rob Kiermarier of another hit.
His fourth at-bat he grounded into a fielders choice that, at the time, scored the go ahead run. However, after review, the play was reversed and ruled a double play due to the slide from Willy Adams into Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar.
Finally, in what would be the final at-bat of the ball game, Kiermarier smokes a ball to first baseman Ryan O’Hearn who then attempted to start a double play, but his poor throw to Salvador Perez allowed Jake Bauers to score the winning run.
KK, you deserved that.
Mr. Leadoff
Mallex Smith has been nothing short of phenomenal in the leadoff spot. Smith is now hitting .349 in the one-hole after going 3-5 including a couple of two-out doubles tonight.
“He’s done a really nice job at the top up there,” Cash said after I asked him about Mallex hitting leadoff. “Mallex was swinging the bat really well at the bottom. Wanted to get him up at the top and [Kevin Kiermarier] wasn’t. Dropping him down and giving him a different look, I think going forward we will probably stay like that, but ultimately we need both of those guys to have a lot of offensive production no matter where they hit, but Mallex has been tremendous for us.”
Slump Busted
Jake Bauers was 1-34 coming into tonight. That slump lowered his average to .209. Tonight, he recorded his first multi-hit game since July 23, going 2-4 with a walk that begin the bottom of the ninth inning to start the game winning rally.
“I don’t think you can put it into words. I take all off this very seriously. I pride myself on contributing every night and being a good ballplayer,” Bauers said when asked how it felt to play a role in the win tonight.
Up Next
The Rays welcome in the best team in baseball as the Boston Red Sox come to town. Game one of the series features Diego Castillo (3-2, 3.47) squaring off against Hector Velazquez (7-1, 2.74).
