ST. PETERSBURG -- It took five tries and 11 innings on Wednesday, but a Willy Adames walk-off single helped the Rays secure their first series sweep at Tropicana Field this season with a 4-3 win over the Blue Jays.
Coming into the seven-game homestand with a 13-11 record at Tropicana Field this year, the Rays wanted to make sure they played much better at home than they had in the previous 24 games. With Wednesday’s victory, Tampa Bay opened its homestand with three straight wins and has now won five consecutive games.
“We needed this win to sweep the Blue Jays,” Adames said. “Because we have a pretty good team coming [with the Twins headed into town] and we’re going to battle with them.”
Let’s take a look at three takeaways from the Rays’ first home sweep of the season.
Adames delivers the big hit
The Rays’ offense struggled with runners in scoring position again on Wednesday, finishing 3-for-16 in such situations, but Adames delivered with the biggest hit of the night, the walk-off single off Blue Jays reliever Justin Shafer.
“We left a lot of guys on base today, obviously, but Willy was able to capitalize,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “Just a great at-bat by Willy.”
Adames, who was 0-for-4 on the night before the walk-off single, began using teammates Guillermo Heredia’s bat in his last two at-bats hoping to find some success at the plate. The Rays' shortstop was able to lay off a couple of sliders and a fastball down in the zone before turning on a 93 mph fastball to end the game.
It was the second walk-off hit of Adames’ career.
“Feels amazing, man,” Adames said. “Especially after that game I was having. It’s a little tough, but that’s going to happen. You’ve got to stay strong mentally.”
Wood to the rescue
After another tough relief outing from Jose Alvarado, allowing the tying run in the eighth inning, Cash called on Hunter Wood to get out of a bases-loaded, none-out situation with the game tied at three.
Just three pitches into his outing, Wood got Freddy Galvis to hit the ball, inducing a pivotal 4-2-3 double play to give the 25-year old some breathing room. Two pitches later, Wood got Brandon Drury to fly out to center fielder Kevin Kiermaier to end the threat and keep the game tied.
Wood went on to pitch three scoreless innings, giving the Rays' offense enough time to ultimately get the winning run across the plate.
“That was impressive,” Cash said. “Wood’s performance was probably the MVP of the night. The three innings of work that he provided, and to ask a guy to come in with bases loaded, nobody out, [that’s] pretty, pretty impressive.”
Snell starts slow, but effective yet again
Blake Snell allowed two first-inning runs when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a two-run homer, but the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner was able to settle down after the opening frame, striking out five and allowing just the two runs over six innings.
“They were very aggressive and I should have known that,” Snell said. “The curveball I threw to Gurriel, he’s a very aggressive hitter, so for me to try and force that first-pitch strike with a curveball was pretty stupid, but he did his thing.”
Because of how aggressive the Blue Jays lineup was on Wednesday, Snell decided to rely mostly on his offspeed pitches, throwing a season-low 23 fastballs, with 20 curveballs, 29 changeups and 15 sliders. The left-hander threw 87 pitches, 54 for strikes.
“The whole team was very aggressive and just hunting fastballs, that’s all they were looking for,” Snell said. “After that, I realized that if I’m going to throw the fastball, I have to execute it where I want it.”
With the quality start, Snell lowered his season ERA to 3.06.