Bats pound out 10 runs, outslug Trout, Angels

Tampa Bay uses small ball to chase starter Skaggs

August 1st, 2018

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays went "Baltimore" on the Angels Tuesday night in a 10-6 win at Tropicana Field.
After getting outscored 37-12 in their final three weekend games against the Orioles, the Rays woke up with a bang in the fourth inning when they dropped a seven spot on the Angels to take a 10-1 lead.
"I think the off-day [on Monday] did us kind of well, to kind of gather ourselves, kind of reset a little bit -- obviously today was a crazy day," said , referencing all of the Rays' trade activity. "So, to go out and put up the numbers that we did and hold the lead and win the game, that was a big thing with us for sure."
Other than Michael Perez's RBI double, which drove home the first run of the inning, the Rays did all of the damage with singles, walks and one hit-by-pitch.

Batting around, the Rays chased Angels starter , who allowed 10 earned runs in his 3 1/3 innings of work to raise his ERA from 2.62 to 3.34.
"Skaggs has had a pretty good season so far, he's done some good things," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "We had some really, really good at-bats against him. Just kept moving the ball with guys in scoring position."
, who took over from Skaggs, finally got the last out of the inning when he struck out Perez swinging. Perez was the Rays' 12th batter of the inning.
"We did it our way," Bauers said. "Good at-bats strung together, and obviously plated a bunch of runs."
The seven runs are the most the Rays have scored in a single inning since Sept. 28, 2017, and the most at Tropicana Field since Oct. 4, '15, when they scored nine runs in the first inning against the Blue Jays.
pitched five innings of relief to earn his 10th win of the season -- despite allowing a career-high six runs during his stint, including 's 30th home run of the season, which rattled off Tropicana Field's C-Ring.

"As far as the pitching, we probably pitched just good enough," Cash said. "We still haven't quite got back on track, but it was a step in the right direction. Yarbs got hit a little bit. [For] and , strike throwing was a little bit of an issue. But I'd like to think it's better than what we just saw over the weekend in Baltimore."
Bauers got the Rays started in the second with a solo home run off Skaggs. Tampa Bay added two more in the third when tripled home one then scored on 's groundout to put the Rays up 3-0.

ROSTER SHUFFLING
was optioned to Triple-A Durham, and right-hander Jake Faria will be activated from the disabled list. Cash said he expects to get some length out of Faria in Wednesday night's game.
BAUERS' HOMERS
Bauers homered in consecutive games for the second time this season. Earlier he turned the trick on July 13-14 at Minnesota. The rookie has hit eight home runs in 173 at-bats with the Rays as compared to five home runs in 197 at-bats with Triple-A Durham before his callup.

HE SAID IT
"I think there's a point where just acquiring as much talent as possible is the priority. It's an entirely different challenge. That part is a pretty straight-forward blueprint of what you need to do. The challenging part, and I think especially in our situation with what we can can do financially so on and so forth, to sync it up, is not an easy thing to do.
"And to find deals that kind of cross your bars, and to trade players while trying to sync things up is really difficult. But this was an opportunity for us to try and time things up with a young group to add to, and that's been a focus for us." -- general manager Erik Neander, on the fact the Rays' recent trades have been for Major League-ready or Major League players
UP NEXT
gets the nod on Wednesday against the Angels in a 7:10 p.m. ET contest at Tropicana Field. The right-hander came to the Rays on Tuesday in the trade that sent Chris Archer to the Pirates. He has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen this season. Right-hander Nick Tropeano will start for the Angels.