ANAHEIM -- The shortstop position was a point of great uncertainty for the Rays entering the 2024 season. So far, José Caballero has turned it into a position of strength.
Caballero went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBIs, two runs and a stolen base to carry the Rays to a 6-4 victory over the Angels on Tuesday night at Angel Stadium. The 27-year-old Panama native extended his on-base streak to 10 games to start the season, with hits in nine of them.
“Trying to be a competitor out there and trying to get on base every at-bat,” Caballero said. “That's my mindset right now. And it's been working out.”
Caballero delivered both the game-tying and go-ahead hits against the Angels. With the Rays trailing 2-1 in the second, he fought off an inside fastball for a bloop RBI single into shallow right field to score Jose Siri from second and tie the score. In his next at-bat in the fourth, he ripped a line drive into the left-field corner to score Siri with the go-ahead run as he raced to second for a hustle double. Caballero crossed the plate later in the inning when Mickey Moniak dropped Harold Ramírez’s shallow fly ball down the right-field line.
Caballero wasn’t done, leading off the eighth with a single and coming around to score an insurance run on a Ramírez RBI single.
“[He’s meant] quite a lot,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He's played excellent defense, he's coming up with big hits, he's moving the ball with runners on base and then when he gets on base, you know he's a threat to run off any pitcher. I think we saw a little bit of all that today.”
It wasn’t all perfect. Caballero committed an error in the fourth inning when he let Nolan Schanuel’s ground ball up the middle bounce through his legs, allowing a run to score. But he rebounded to handle every other defensive chance without issue, and he more than made up for his miscue with his performance at the plate.
In his first season with the Rays, he’s batting a team-best .353 and ranks third with an .819 OPS.
“The staff, the teammates that I have, they've been awesome to me,” said Caballero, who was acquired from the Mariners in January with shortstops Wander Franco and Taylor Walls out for the start of the season. “They've been great. They've been trying to help me with everything and I feel comfortable here. That's why it makes me a better player."
Isaac Paredes hit his team-leading fourth home run and Ramírez went 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs in support to help the Rays bounce back from an ugly series-opening loss. Aaron Civale shook off an early two-run homer from Mike Trout to pick up the win with five innings, four hits and two earned runs allowed. He walked one and struck out four.
“I just felt like I fell into a groove after that first and the offense came right back and picked me up right after that,” Civale said. “It's always huge. You give up runs and then your offense comes out and scores runs. It's a good momentum shift.”
The Rays had to hold on at the end. Closer Pete Fairbanks, coming off a blown save in Colorado in his last outing, allowed a two-out RBI single to Luis Rengifo in the ninth to cut the Rays’ lead to 6-4. He then walked Anthony Rendon to bring the winning run to the plate, but froze Miguel Sano on a 2-2 slider at the top of the zone to end the game.
“Nobody's firing on all cylinders right now,” Cash said. “I don't know the exact reason why. Sometimes you gotta grind through it. Grind your at-bats, grind your pitches, and it felt like he did that tonight.”