Monday, September 2. Game 139. Rays win fifth in a row at the Trop, top Orioles 5-4 in 11

Rays 5, Orioles 4

Record:  81-58

Attendance:  10,566.  Tropicana Field

It was Tommy Pham Day at the Trop on Sunday.  He went 3 for 4 with three RBIs, including the walk-off single in the tenth inning.  He was hit on the right knee in the eighth inning, and promptly stole second--as much a revenge gesture as a baseball strategy.  But he didn't score in the eighth.  When he got to the plate in the tenth with two out and Joey Wendle on second, Baltimore reliever Dillon Tate, brushed him back with a fastball.  High heat.  Chin music.  The Baltimore bench cheered Tate on, which added a level of anger to Pham's usual high-grade intensity.  He dug in and hit a sharp single through the left side, scoring Wendle who slid head first into home barely beating the tag.  Pham was swamped by his teammates who had begun to wonder if their flatness over the previous four innings might bring them down just when they were beginning to feel a true pennant fever.  But no, they managed to squeak out a victory.  Tommy Pham Day.

After the game, Pham was interviewed on the field by Fox Sports Sun's Tricia Whitaker.  What was he feeling in that final at-bat?  "First pitch, he threw it at my head, and after that I just wanted to kill him."  Pham's by now legendary intensity had tilted to overstatement, but Tate must have been concerned looking in at the plate and facing an angry Tommy Pham.  "But," he went on, "success is revenge.  And I got the game-winning hit for us."

But the game was hardly a cake walk for the Rays.  The Orioles took the last two games of a four-game set on August 24 and 25, and they were intent on adding another W to spoil the Rays' chances.  The Rays took a 2-0 lead on Austin Meadows home run in the second.  They added on in the fifth with two more runs.  With two out, Wendle was hit by a pitch and Meadows singled, which brought up Pham, who doubled home both runs.

But Baltimore got on the board in the sixth.  Ryan Yarbrough had been skating through the Oriole lineup through the fifth, but in the sixth, he was responsible for four runs that tied the score.  At that point the bullpens took over, both sides coming up with four scoreless innings.  Cash selected Diego Castillo for the seventh, Oliver Drake for the eighth, and Emilio Pagan in the ninth.  The win went to Colin Poche, now 4-4, who pitched the tenth.  Adding to Pham's revenge, Dillon Tate (0-1) took the loss in the sixth game of his career.

Telling statistic from Marc Topkin in the Tampa Bay Times:  In close games, the Rays were 1-7 early in the season, but they have won 10 of their last 11 and 18 of their last 26.  Overall they are 19-15. 

Tuesday, September 3:  double header.  The schedule originally called for single games on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Hurricane Dorian forced the teams to take precautionary measures and schedule the double header instead.  Look for lots of pitchers on both sides--and probably names you aren't familiar with.