A wacky way to start the week ended with a win, so it’s all good in Tampa Bay.
“Wins are wins,” was the first thing out of Rays manager Kevin Cash’s mouth during his postgame press conference following Monday’s 10-9 extra-inning, walk-off victory over the visiting Detroit Tigers.
That’s because a team powered by pitching was bailed out by the bats. Chris Archer’s return from the 10-day disabled list was overshadowed by a surging offense.
“Nice to see our offense really come to life the last two days,” said Cash, referencing the Rays’ 19 runs over the past two games. The Rays pounded the New York Mets 9-0 Sunday afternoon.
“That’s probably the bright spot. We didn’t do our best on the mound, but saying that, we’ve been on a pretty impressive run. I think the guys are allowed a little bit of a hiccup and it was nice to see the offense was there to pick them up because that happens a lot the other way. You’re not going to go out there and throw shutouts or two-run ballgames all the time.”
Despite owning leads of 5-0 after one inning, 7-3 after three and 9-7 after seven, the Rays couldn’t hit the clubhouse until Daniel Robertson lashed a walk-off RBI single up the middle in the bottom of the 10th off left-hander Blaine Hardy. It was Robertson’s first-ever game-winner as a major leaguer and was set up by Kevin Kiermaier’s one-out triple and a clutch, nine-pitch walk from Matt Duffy.
After fouling off the first pitch he saw on an attempted bunt, Robertson took ball one before roping his walk-off up the middle.
“I can’t give enough credit to KK in getting that going and getting on third base there,” Robertson said from in front of his locker. “Matt Duffy with the at bat of the day. I don’t know how many pitches he saw, but he gave me enough pitches to know what that guy was doing. What an at bat that was. At the end of the day I knew I had Ramos coming up behind me so I knew that they were going to try and attack me. I went out of the zone a little bit on that safety bunt and then I just told myself to get him in the zone and be short and simple to it and I was able to get one up the middle.”
#Rays Daniel Robertson on his walk-off RBI base hit in the 10th #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/7I3qIcElrb
— The Scrum Sports (@TheScrumSports) July 10, 2018
Monday’s victory moves Tampa Bay to two games over .500 for the second time this season. The last and only other time they were that many games above break-even came on May 30 when they were 28-26. The Rays also pushed their home record 24-17 and extra-inning mark to 5-4.
The Rays pounded out 17 hits, which ranks third-most this season, and reached double-digits in runs scored for the fifth time. Tampa Bay’s highest-scoring game came April 28 in Boston during a 12-6 win and the most hits (20) came last Tuesday in Miami during a 9-6 triumph.
An added bright spot was seeing a couple struggling Rays bats enjoy a little success. Kiermaier entered the game batting .150 and the triple was his lone hit on a 1-for-5 night, but it couldn’t have come at a better time.
Carlos Gomez, five days removed from going viral for bashing in a couple dugout water coolers in Miami, went 3-for-5 with three RBI. Gomez started the night batting .200 and turned in his third multi-hit game of July.
C.J. Cron was batting .270 with 12 homers and 32 RBI heading into June. From July 1 to Sunday, Cron was batting .183 with five home runs and 10 RBI, striking out 35 times in 108 plate appearances. The designated hitter/first baseman stepped up with a pair of doubles and an RBI, going 3-for-4.
“Hitting’s weird, man,” Cron said of his recent slump. “You try different things and it seems nothing works and then you don’t try anything for a couple days and all of a sudden it comes back.”
#Rays C.J. Cron on his 3-for-4 day at the plate that included two doubles #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/tvSMh53rZn
— Eric Horchy (@EricHorchy) July 10, 2018
The night began with Archer’s return from a left abdominal strain being the lead story. The right-hander was expected to be on a pitch limit of 70-80 and though he looked comfortable on the mound, the results weren’t quite there. Archer got pulled one out into the fourth inning after throwing 53 of his 78 pitches for strikes (67.9 percent) and giving up three runs, all earned, on six hits and two walks. He struck out three.
“We talked about his command being so good and then the first two pitches of the game he almost hits the guy in the head,” Cash said of Archer’s return. “I think rusty’s a fair term.”
#Rays manager Kevin Cash talking about Chris Archer's first start back since returning from the DL #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/mte6KpObMG
— The Scrum Sports (@TheScrumSports) July 10, 2018
Archer escaped the first unscathed after allowing the first two batters to reach safely and then got spotted a 5-0 lead when the Rays sent nine men to the plate against Tigers starter Francisco Liriano. He kept Detroit off the board for two innings but couldn’t wiggle his way out of a rocky third. The Tigers loaded the bases with no out and Niko Goodrum cut the deficit to 5-2 with a two-run double to right.
The surrendered runs ended a streak of 20 straight scoreless innings delivered by Rays pitchers. Tampa Bay blanked the Mets 3-0 Saturday and 9-0 Sunday.
Detroit added another in the third on Jim Adduci’s 4-3 groundout and Archer completed the frame by getting former Ray Mikie Mahtook to fly out to left.
Tampa Bay got two back in the home half of the third, starting with All-Star catcher Wilson Ramos’ first-pitch, leadoff homer into the right-field seats. After the Tigers replaced Liriano with Drew VerHagen, Gomez rolled an RBI double up the middle that took a fortunate kick off second base.
Archer’s night ended in the fourth after Victor Reyes singled to center with one on and one out. Reliever Hunter Wood ended the frame with two quick outs and worked two more scoreless innings, but there wasn’t much else to smile about from the bullpen.
Cash and the Rays needed nine different pitchers to piece together Monday’s win. Two different Rays – Diego Castillo and Sergio Romo – were saddled with blown saves, and Jaime Schultz failed to get an out after following Wood to start the seventh, giving up three runs, all earned, on one hit, a walk and a hit batter.
As for Archer, the 29-year-old said he’s just glad to be back out on a major-league mound.
“The first batter I was a little excited, but overall I think the biggest takeaway is that I was healthy. They put a lot of balls in play and they found holes and that’s unfortunate. The main thing is that I’m healthy and we won the game. That’s what I’m excited about right now.”
The Rays will attempt to reach a season-best three games over .500 Tuesday night at 7:10 p.m. Tampa Bay has two more at home against Detroit before wrapping up the first half with four on the road against the Minnesota Twins.
