For Drew Rasmussen and the Rays, the issue lately has been falling behind.
Looking back at a rare rough outing as he stood in the Rays’ dugout at Tropicana Field on Wednesday morning, Rasmussen put it plainly: He hasn’t been throwing enough first-pitch strikes lately, at least not enough to meet his high standard.
“If we get that sorted out,” Rasmussen said then, “I think we’ll be in a good spot again.”
Manager Kevin Cash offered a similar diagnosis when looking at the Rays’ recent skid, when they lost eight of their past 10 games. They were playing from behind too often, forced to dig out of early holes by tough starts and a late-starting lineup. The Tigers scored first in all three games as they swept the Rays at the Trop, and Tampa Bay had scored first only four times in the past 10 games overall.
“Let’s see if we can get some early runs,” Cash told reporters Friday afternoon at loanDepot park in Miami. “See if we can kind of repay the favor with batting first and get our offense going for our pitchers.”
Everything went according to plan in Friday night’s series opener against the Marlins. No longer falling behind, Rasmussen and the Rays came out ahead with a 6-0 victory, improving their record to an American League-leading 37-23.
Rasmussen relentlessly attacked the strike zone against Miami’s lineup, firing first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 22 batters he faced. With that taken care of, Rasmussen had one of the best starts of his career, striking out nine batters while allowing just one hit over seven incredible innings.
It should come as no surprise that the rock-steady Rasmussen returned to form after his uncharacteristic four-inning, five-run outing against the Angels last Saturday. But what he did against the Marlins was impressive even compared to his usual top-of-the-rotation performance.
Rasmussen’s determination and domination was evident from the start, as he breezed through a perfect first inning on only six pitches. He allowed a one-out single to Javier Sanoja in the second inning and nothing else the rest of the night, retiring the final 17 hitters he faced in order.
Rasmussen’s nine strikeouts were tied for the second most in his career -- and his most in any outing since a career-high 10-strikeout outing against the Yankees on Sept. 9, 2022. The punchouts came in a number of different ways, as he racked up three with his cutter, three with his changeup, two on his two-seamer and one on his four-seam fastball.
Friday was also only the seventh time that Rasmussen has worked seven innings, tied for the second-longest start of his career. Two of them have come within his past three games, as he also worked seven scoreless innings against the Yankees on May 24.
It was exactly what the Rays’ rotation needed after their starters allowed at least five runs in five of their past seven games, including each of their three games against Detroit.
And in return, Rasmussen got the early run support the Rays have been looking for. Plenty of it, and plenty early, as the Rays scored three in the first inning and kept tacking on runs to cruise to a comfortable victory, boosting their record when scoring first to 26-7 this season.
With one out in the first inning, Junior Caminero doubled, Jonathan Aranda walked and Yandy Díaz beat a potential double-play grounder to keep the inning going. Richie Palacios delivered the big early hit -- and favorable bounce -- the Rays have been looking for lately: a line drive that kicked off right fielder Owen Caissie’s glove for a two-run triple.
Ryan Vilade followed Palacios’ third career triple with an RBI single off Marlins opener Ryan Gusto. And just like that, the Rays had given Rasmussen three runs’ worth of breathing room by scoring first for the first time since Sunday.
That was more support than Rasmussen needed, but Tampa Bay’s lineup didn’t stop there. The Rays appeared to completely shake off the frustration of the last series’ sweep by scoring in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
In the fifth, Caminero doubled for the second time and scored on a single by Aranda, who snapped an 0-for-14 stretch with his team-leading 44th RBI of the season. Caminero also walked twice on the night and singled in the eighth to get on base a fifth time.
Cedric Mullins homered for the second straight game in the sixth, blasting a two-strike splitter from Tyler Phillips out to right-center field for his fifth home run. In the seventh, Caminero walked, Díaz singled and Vilade -- who moved to left field when Chandler Simpson exited due to left thumb discomfort -- delivered another RBI single.