The Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners kicked off a three-game set in Seattle on Friday night and the pitching matchup that featured Drew Rasmussen and Logan Gilbert did not disappoint. The pair of aces delivered a throwback edition pitcher’s duel and luckily for the Rays, Drew Rasmussen emerged victorious.
The righty turned in yet another scoreless outing and set the table for the offense to do just enough as the Rays pulled off their fourth consecutive road win. Rasmussen was nearly perfect across seven strong innings. He punched out eight and walked two, allowing just a pair of hits. Had it not been for an extended second inning where he had to work out of a bases loaded situation, he could have pitched into the eighth. The effort was good enough for his 11th win of the season as he dropped his ERA to 2.75.
Opposite Drew, Logan Gilbert also put together a strong outing but made a pair of mistakes that proved costly. Over 6.2 innings of work, he punched out six, walked four, and allowed four hits. Of those four hits, two left the yard.
In back-to-back innings, the Rays were able to get to Gilbert. In the second, Johnny DeLuca launched his eighth homer of the year to left center field and gave the Rays an early 1-0 lead.
Then, in the following inning, Jonathan Aranda, laced a ball down the right field line to extend the Rays lead to 2-0.
On a night where Yandy, Caminero, Hicks, and Simpson went hitless, the Rays were able to find just enough offense to pull this one out.
Cleavinger and Kelly combined to toss a scoreless eighth inning and Baker came on in the ninth looking for his 33rd save of the season. While he did surrender a solo shot to Julio Rodriguez that snapped the M’s scoreless streak, Baker eventually slammed the door.
With the win, the Rays were able to hold serve in the division as both the Yankees (4.5 games back) and red-hot Red Sox (5 games back) won their respective games. They also improved to a season-high 23 games over .500. Only the Brewers and Braves have a better winning percentage in all of baseball. Tomorrow night, Griffin Jax will face off against George Kirby.
