After losing three straight series, the Tampa Bay Rays have assured themselves not only of a winning weekend, but they are going for a sweep on Sunday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Adding to the accomplishment, the opponent is one of the hottest teams in baseball — the Arizona Diamondbacks. SUPPORT?
After his team rallied for a 5-4 win on Friday, Tampa Bay starter Jeffrey Springs followed by winning Saturday for the first time since his return from Tommy John surgery. The Rays’ offense also awakened to produce 13 hits, a homer, triple, three doubles and four stolen bases in a 6-1 victory.
Springs and four relievers, meanwhile, limited Arizona to five singles and presented Rays manager Kevin Cash with win No. 800, the sixth-highest total among active managers.
“I didn’t even know it until after the game,” said Cash, the skipper for 10 years for his hometown club. “I’m happy. I appreciate the guys. Every win is meaningful. This is a fun organization to get that many wins with.”
One of the Rays’ hottest hitters, outfielder Josh Lowe, was 1-for-4 with an RBI triple, a run and a stolen base Saturday. He is hitting .340 in his past 15 games.
“I’m just simplifying and using the big part of the field,” Lowe said. “I think when I’m doing that, things start to click up for me.”
The Diamondbacks had won nine straight series dating to a 2-2 split with the Atlanta Braves in the next-to-last set before the All-Star break.
Even with the losses to start this series, the Diamondbacks are 18-5 in their past 23 games, buoyed by Eugenio Suarez’s bat.
The third baseman is 2-for-8 in the first two games against the Rays, including being hit in the hand by a Ryan Pepiot pitch Friday. That pitch, however, was ruled a swing, retiring Suarez on a strikeout, but he stayed in the game and played Saturday as well.
In a span of 40 games that began July 2, the Venezuelan slugger, who homered 49 times for the Cincinnati Reds in 2019, is batting .308 (45-for-146) with 25 extra-base hits. He led the majors with 37 RBIs during that stretch entering Saturday.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Suarez has put in the work to get those results.
“(Suarez has) been a great hitter for us over the past month and a half,” Lovullo said. “He’s really impacted this team’s ability to score runs, and he should be proud of himself. He’s been working really, really hard to have those types of moments.”
With the Rays starting a West Coast trip on Monday to face the Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers and Seattle Mariners, Cash has opted for a bullpen game Sunday and pushed slated starter Taj Bradley back to the trip’s opener.
Bradley is 0-2 with an 11.00 ERA in two August starts, so extra rest could help the Los Angeles native.
Tampa Bay put starter Zack Littell (shoulder fatigue) on the injured list on Saturday and called up left-hander Tyler Alexander from Triple-A Durham. He is expected to handle the bulk innings in Sunday’s finale after right-hander Drew Rasmussen serves as the opener.
Alexander (5-3, 5.20 ERA), who last pitched for the Rays on Aug. 10, is 1-0 with no runs allowed in two relief appearances spanning four innings. a 0.00 ERA in two relief appearances against Arizona totaling four innings.
Rasmussen (0-0, 5.40 ERA) has made three relief stints for Tampa Bay this season, all since Aug. 7. He has never faced the Diamondbacks.
Right-hander Merrill Kelly (3-0, 2.43) will pitch for the Diamondbacks in his second appearance since missing almost four months due to a shoulder strain. He went five effective innings — giving up two runs and three hits — in beating the Philadelphia Phillies 12-5 on Aug. 11.
Kelly has faced the Rays just once, and it did not go well. In his rookie season of 2019, he took the loss after giving up seven runs in four innings (15.75 ERA) in St. Petersburg.
–Field Level Media
