Lean on me: Rays' deep 'pen leads way

August 12th, 2020

Coming into the season, the Rays were confident that their relief corps would be one of the deepest and most talented units in the Majors. Through 18 games, Tampa Bay's bullpen has lived up to the hype.

On Tuesday, the bullpen led the way again. The Rays used seven pitchers, all relievers, en route to an 8-2 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park, helping the club secure its first road series win of the season. Tampa Bay has a six-game winning streak at Fenway and has won 11 of its past 12 games in Boston.

"We know if we have any kind of lead at any point of the game, we feel pretty good that we're going to close it out," said Rays infielder Mike Brosseau, who hit a leadoff homer. "They're really good at their jobs and we like to play behind them. They make our jobs a lot easier."

The Rays have played six games over the past five days, which naturally creates workload challenges for a pitching staff. In that span, Tampa Bay has had to work around injuries to starters Charlie Morton and Yonny Chirinos, a three-inning start by Blake Snell on Friday, a 2 2/3-inning outing by Tyler Glasnow and a seven-inning bullpen game in Saturday's doubleheader.

But despite the challenges, the Rays' bullpen has held its own, leading the team to a 5-1 record over its past six games. Tuesday was another scheduled bullpen game, and again, Tampa Bay had to navigate through an injury.

After recording his first career save Monday, opened the game for the Rays but was taken out of the game just two batters in with right elbow soreness. Though Kittredge was likely scheduled for one or two innings as the opener, the injury put even more pressure on Tampa Bay's bullpen. It responded yet again.

, who made his Rays debut on Sunday, provided the most length on Tuesday, picking up his first big league win, allowing just one run over 2 2/3 innings, the longest outing of his career.

"It felt great," Curtiss said, when asked about his first career win. "We looked really good out there as a team. Everybody in the bullpen after me just shoved. It was awesome. It was a great team win."

Following Curtiss, the Rays leaned on to pitch two innings, and the left-hander was able to provide perhaps his best two frames of the season. , and also contributed to the win.

Alvarado has struggled with command in the past, but the Rays have been encouraged with what they've seen this season, especially on Tuesday. Alvarado threw 29 pitches and recorded six swings and misses, four of them coming on a sinker that maxed out at 100 mph.

"Tremendous," said Rays manager Kevin Cash. "The highlight from the bullpen was Curtiss and Alvarado. Alvarado was huge to be able to give us two innings. That's not something we generally ask him to do. He got really efficient. … We just needed strikes and he provided that."

With nine strikeouts against the Red Sox, the Rays' bullpen leads the Majors with 101 whiffs. With 8 2/3 innings of work Tuesday, the bullpen has now covered 88 2/3 frames, which is over 50 percent of the team's total innings and the most in the Majors. A reliever has also now accounted for nine of the club's 10 wins.

Tampa Bay's offense was also impressive for a second straight night. Thanks to a six-run seventh inning, the Rays scored eight runs in back-to-back games and had six different players collect a hit on Tuesday, with Brosseau, and leading the charge.

"We talked about seeing if we can get on a roll offensively," Cash said. "We were able to get to their bullpen and just have big at-bat after big at-bat and put a crooked number in one big inning that gave us a little breathing room."