ST. PETERSBURG -- The way the Rays’ pitching staff has been rolling lately, they don’t need much help from their lineup.
They didn’t get much Wednesday night. Fortunately, they got all they needed right away.
Yandy Díaz hit a first-pitch, leadoff homer off Rangers starter MacKenzie Gore, and Ryan Vilade hammered a two-run shot off Tropicana Field’s C-ring catwalk three batters later. Opener Casey Legumina, lefty Ian Seymour and the back end of the Rays bullpen took that lead and ran all the way to a 3-0 victory over the Rangers.
“There’s not much you can say, really,” Díaz said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “The only thing that comes to mind is, like you guys say, ‘These guys are nasty.’ Our pitchers are nasty.”
It was the Rays’ ninth shutout win of the season and their third in the past four games. Since giving up 28 runs during a four-game series in Boston coming out of the All-Star break, Tampa Bay has permitted only 15 runs in the last nine games.
It was a group effort on Wednesday, but everyone played their part to perfection. The Rangers didn’t advance a runner to third base, even though all four of their hits were doubles.
Legumina retired five of the six batters he faced, then Seymour breezed into the seventh inning by setting down 14 of the 17 he faced. Left-hander Garrett Cleavinger stranded a pair of runners in the seventh, striking out Cam Cauley to end an eight-pitch battle before retiring Alejandro Osuna on just one pitch.
Kevin Kelly struck out the side in the eighth before Bryan Baker picked up his 29th save, second-most in the Majors behind Cleveland’s Cade Smith, in the ninth. It was also Baker’s 18th straight save, which only hints at the confidence and consistency he has brought to his role.
“Just committing to our process and attacking the zone, gaining count control and relying on the defense behind us,” Seymour said. “That's been leading to some good outcomes.”
The whole game was an example of what the Rays do best. They got ahead in counts, with 24 first-pitch strikes to the 32 batters they faced. They only walked one batter. In fact, they only ran into three three-ball counts all night.
They were quick, efficient and -- as Díaz said -- pretty nasty.
“It all comes back to going with the game plan these guys have for us -- and they do such a great job -- and then really just filling up the zone, trusting our stuff,” Baker said. “Anytime you can have that many shutouts in a short period of time, you're doing something right. So, hopefully we can keep that coming.”
That the Rays continued their run of tremendous pitching was about the only normal part of an unusual game. Consider:
- The Rays hit two homers and a double. The Rangers had four doubles. It was the first game in Rays history in which every hit from both teams was for extra bases. According to Stats Perform, it was only the seventh time in MLB’s modern era that such a game occurred, with the most recent being the Dodgers’ 6-2 win over the Braves on Aug. 18, 2012.
- The Rays didn’t record a hit after the first inning. Their only baserunners from that point on were Ben Williamson, who was hit in the foot by a pitch in the fifth, and Díaz, who walked with two outs in the eighth. It was the 15th time in franchise history that the Rays won while scoring all their runs in the first inning … and just the second time (also Aug. 21, 2014, against the Tigers) that the team has ever won with all its hits coming in the first inning.
It wasn’t much, as Gore shut them down the rest of the way, but the Rays’ early homers allowed their pitchers to stay on the attack and get in a groove.
“Yeah, that's a pretty good start to the day,” Seymour said, smiling. “Much more comfortable pitching with a 3-nothing lead.”
After a power spree in which they homered in 20 of 25 games, the Rays had gone without a longball in five of their past six games, including the last three. That changed in a hurry, as Díaz blasted his 15th of the season and his 114th in his time with Tampa Bay, tying Ben Zobrist for sixth-most in franchise history.
Jonathan Aranda then doubled off Gore, setting up Vilade’s ninth homer of the season -- fifth-most on the team, despite being 11th in plate appearances.
“Whether he's in there every day or not, he's always ready,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Vilade. “When he gets his opportunities, he's just come up with so many big hits, big home runs here this season.”