ST. PETERSBURG -- A night after the Rays set season-high marks for runs, hits and extra-base hits, Yandy Díaz flexed his considerable muscle to power the lineup himself.
Díaz ripped an RBI double in the first inning and demolished a tiebreaking homer in the sixth off starter Kyle Bradish, sending the Rays to a 4-1 victory over the Orioles and clinching Tampa Bay’s eighth consecutive series win.
The night ended in painful fashion for Díaz, however, as he was hit on the fingers of both hands by a 93.9 mph fastball from Yennier Cano in the eighth inning. Díaz walked down the first-base line in obvious discomfort and was replaced by speedy pinch-runner Carson Williams, who immediately scored on a double by Richie Palacios.
That might have been the only way to slow down Díaz, who is on an 11-for-24 run with six extra-base hits and 10 RBIs during a six-game hitting streak.
“We almost expect it out of him,” hitting coach Chad Mottola said. “It's not fair to him to think that way, but we know [when] there's a couple games where he doesn't do it, you're more surprised at that than you are at these stretches.”
The Rays have won 20 of their past 24 games and own the best record in the Majors at 32-15. That is tied with the 2010 team for the second-best start in franchise history, trailing only the ‘23 club that won 34 of its first 47 games.
Díaz was not made available to reporters after the game, as he was undergoing treatment. Manager Kevin Cash said he would have more information on the status of Díaz’s injury on Wednesday.
In the unlikely event anyone needed a reminder of how important he is to Tampa Bay’s lineup, Díaz provided plenty of proof in what was mostly a pitchers’ duel on Tuesday night.
“He seems like he's just locked in every pitch that he's swinging at right now, laying off tough pitches and then hanging in there on some pitches to extend the at-bat,” Cash said. “Then, when he gets a ball he can handle, he's finding a lot of barrels.”
With two outs in the first inning, Jonathan Aranda worked a 10-pitch walk off Bradish. Up came Díaz, fresh off his second four-hit game of the season. The veteran DH saw six pitches before smashing a 113.7 mph double that rolled to the wall in center field, giving Aranda time to score the tying run from first.
Seeing him hit a ball to that part of the field was a sign to Mottola that Díaz is especially locked in.
“That's almost his pull side of the field,” Mottola said, grinning. “Everybody says ‘using the whole field’ when he goes to right, but there's actually a left field out there, too.”
Leading off the sixth, Díaz jumped on a hanging slider from Bradish and blasted it out to center, well over the spot where his double wound up earlier in the night. His eighth homer of the season traveled a Statcast-projected 439 feet, tied for the third longest of his career behind a pair of 440-foot shots.
“The guy is an amazing hitter,” Palacios said. “He absolutely crushed that ball. I got the best view of it because I was in the on-deck circle, so it was nice to see.”
Even the fastball that glanced off both of Díaz’s hands wound up helping the Rays. Whether the move was related to Díaz’s injury or speed, Williams sped around the bases to score a key insurance run on Palacios’ double off the right-field wall.
“Richie was ready to go,” Cash said. “Good thing Carson's fast.”
It was a pure pitchers’ duel between Díaz’s two big hits. Bradish held the Rays to two walks and a pair of hits until the sixth, and Griffin Jax continued to shine in his transition into Tampa Bay’s rotation.
Jax allowed only three hits and one walk while striking out six over five efficient innings. The lone run he allowed came on a leadoff homer by Taylor Ward, then he cruised through Baltimore’s batting order twice on only 62 pitches (41 strikes).
His old friends in the bullpen handled the rest, as Kevin Kelly, Ian Seymour, Casey Legumina and Bryan Baker allowed only one hit and one walk over the final four innings.
Since joining the staff as a full-time starter, Jax has posted a 1.42 ERA in five outings.
“Definitely the best one [in] this new role for me,” Jax said. “The first guy gets me, but you've got some innings to play with after that, so I can't just let it snowball. Have to just reset and get back to attacking guys, and happy that I was able to do that.”