The Rays beat the Twins today 4-1, and won their first series of the season.
This was a quintessential pitcher’s duel, with both starters pitching at least six strong innings. Nick Martinez, making his second start as a Ray, was especially impressive. He gave up one hit – of course it happened to be a booming home run to Matt Wallner — and walked just one batter. He struck out four, relying on weak contact to get his outs.
So it was fortunate that today was also a day when the Rays infield avoided costly errors, and in fact I’d say they looked pretty sharp. Junior Caminero, whose fielding has been atrocious over these first 10 days, made all his routine plays and even a few tough ones. (He and Chandler Simpson did nearly collide while letting a foul ball drop in the tenth inning, but fortunately it did not lead to damage.)
The Rays had their opportunities through the first nine innings, but were not able to deliver. Their only run during regulation also came on a solo shot, Junior’s first home run and shockingly first RBI of the season.
With Griffin Jax and Bryan Baker keeping holding the Twins scoreless in relief of Martinez, the game headed into the 10th inning. Ben Williamson was the — do we still call them ghost runners? — well the guy on second to start the inning, and Richie Palacios came to bat.
Richie has missed a lot of time the last two seasons with injuries, and was a bit of a forgotten man coming into this season, what a great pick-me-up for him and for the Rays, then, for him to take a 1-0 pitch well over the right field fence to give the Rays a 3-1 lead.
The Rays continued to apply pressure, as Nick Fortes singled and both Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda drew walks to load the bases. Junior Caminero came up with two outs, and patiently took his walk as well, to drive in the fourth run.
Before we could even remember how terrible the Rays bullpen has been in most of this season’s games, Kevin Kelly had retired the Twins to earn himself a save and the team a victory.
We hate to over-extrapolate from very small samples, but Nick Martinez and Steve Matz are looking very good. Ben Williamson has also impressed with his versatility, sharp fielding and reliable bat. Chandler Simpson is on a tear, and perhaps less surprisingly Yandy Diaz has been unstoppable. So, Rays fans have reason to feel optimistic.
It’s great that the team returns, victorious, to re-open Tropicana Field tomorrow.
