Rays 5, Blue Jays 0
Record: 84-59
Attendance: 10,853. Tropicana Field. Better than yesterday, but not good. The Trop should be a sell-out every night, especially at this time of year with the Rays in serious contention for the postseason.
Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, seven Rays pitchers combined for a shutout. Friday night against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Rays got a two-hit shutout with only five pitchers. Improvement of a sort. Not that the pitchers should be singled out for the recent rampage the Tampa Bay Rays have been on. They've also been getting great defense (mostly) and the timely hitting they have not always had this season. With 84 wins already in the bag (25 games over .500) and 19 left to play, the Rays chances at postseason baseball are very good, but there can be no drop off from here on out.
Brendan McKay showed that his time on the IL and at Durham rested him sufficiently to rediscover his command and arm strength. He pitched three and two-thirds innings, giving up one hit, no walks, and striking out seven over 59 pitches. Pete Fairbanks got the win following McKay with an inning and a third of perfect baseball. Cole Sulser, just called up for the first time at age 29, pitched a good eighth but got himself in a jam in the ninth, giving up a hit and two walks to load the bases, which brought on The Closer, officially designated or not,.Emilio Pagan, who shut the door and picked up his 19th save.
Offensively, Avisail Garcia knocked in the first run in the first inning, and then in the second, Mike Zunino hit a two-run homer. They added on with a run scoring on a passed ball in the fourth and another coming in on Austin Meadows single in the eighth.
Saturday's game will have Charlie Morton on the mound, and Sunday will feature the return of Tyler Glasnow as the opener. His last appearance was on May 10. He spent the entire summer on the IL for a right forearm strain. When he went down, his record was 6-1 with an ERA of 1.86. Heady stuff. Rays fans would do well, however, to temper unrealistically high expectations. But still, Glasnow might be the ingredient that seals the deal.
The Rays have two more games against the Blue Jays this weekend before going on a two-city road trip, taking them to Arlington, Texas (the Rangers), and Los Angeles (the Angels and the Dodgers). After that there are four games against the Red Sox and two against the Yankees at the Trop. The last three games of the year are against the Blue Jays again, but in Toronto. After their summer slump, it's hard to believe the Rays are actually up to their necks in very meaningful September games--a tight race for a wild card spot in the playoffs. If they had started this run a little earlier, they might have been in contention for first place in the AL East, but the Yankees have run away with that race, and at 92-50 they are 8.5 games ahead of second-place Tampa.
If you're a Rays fan, it doesn't get any better than this--but let's hope it does get a little better every day for the rest of the month.
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