Rays 4, Yankees 0: Bittersweet Shutout

Meadows and Arozarena homer, and the bullpen picks up the slack for an injured Archer as the Rays shutout the Yanks.

On a bittersweet Saturday, the Rays shutout the Yankees 4-0 to get back to .500. But the game featured another bite from the injury bug, this time taking Chris Archer, who was pulled midway through the third with forearm tightness.

Human garbage Domingo Germán took the hill for New York. The lineup backing Arch looked like this:

In the early going, Archer’s heater was only reaching the low 90s and his slider was inconsistent. Still, he managed to strike out the side in the first, surrendering just a single to Hicks.

In the bottom of the first, Meadows doinked a 2-1 change up off the right field foul pole.

1-0 Rays!

After a quick ten pitch second for Archer, Wendle singled up the middle leading off the bottom of the frame. Adames followed with a lined single to right center. Brett Phillips then recorded a productive out, tapping to first and moving up both runners. Mejía followed with liner off the pitcher that dribbled into short right, scoring Wendle and Adames.

3-0 Rays!

Chris Archer’s triumphant return was cut short in the third after a one-out double by DJLM.

it was later reported to be a forearm issue, which is usually not good.

On the bright side, Kevin Cash reported after the game that Archer’s forearm tightness was on the outside of the arm instead of the inside, which puts it away from the “Tommy John” area. So keep your fingers crossed, Rays fans.

Andrew Kittredge took over and worked around a two out walk to Hicks to escape the jam, finishing off Stanton with a nice slider for the K.

In the bottom of the third, Randy did Randy things.

4-0 Rays!

That would be it for the scoring by the Rays. Domingo Dogshit would only go four, but a parade of Yankee relievers kept the Rays in check, despite there being traffic all over the bases. On the day, the Rays would 1-7 is RISP situations, leaving a total of 11 on base.

Kittredge went back out for the top of the fourth and hung another zero, pitching around a Brett Gardener double, with some help from his friends.

Kittredge would get credit for the win, improving to 2-0.

Springs got the call for the fifth. He looked good, flashing several nice change ups while striking out the side, pitching around a hard two out single by Judge.

Springs went back out for the sixth and worked the first one-two-three inning of the night. Well done, Springs!

Ryan Thompson got the seventh, and worked a wonderfully uneventful inning.

Cody Reed got the ball for the eighth. After a four pitch walk to DJLM, he bounced back by striking out Judge and getting Hicks to ground into a 4-3 double play that featured a nifty turn by BLowe.

Chris Mazza — Mazza? Hm, interesting — got the call for the ninth. He gave up a hard grounder by Stanton that Wendle fielded nicely, a pop fly to short right by Torres, and a fly out to center from Gardner to finish it off.

Notes:

Several Rays got the up and in treatment, including Wendle (of course) who took a Justin Wilson fastball off the bill of his helmet.

Today was Dave Haller’s last day with the Rays. He’s leaving to pursue other non-baseball interests.

Tomorrow the Rays go for the sweep behind Michael Wacha. Game time is at 1:10 PM.