Rays 4 Angels 2: Thanks goodness for José Caballero

If you’ve been missing three plus hour games, then today would have made you happy! This is surprising with the super efficient Zach Littell on the mound for the Rays, but today he wasn’t quite his usual low-walk, elite control pitcher. Lots of deep counts and foul balls made this one feel like a bit of a grind.

But the Rays were able to capitalize early on a very strange inning that must have made the Angels and their starter, the young and talented Jose Soriano, feel cursed. Yandy Diaz led off with an unremarkable single, but the next two hitters, Arozarena and Palacios, both hit hard grounders that deflected off the pitcher and ended up as infield hits. With the bases loaded, no one out, and Soriano do doubt feeling like a punching bag, he threw wildly and his catcher completely lost the ball, which allowed not just one but two runs to score. Isaac Paredes brought home a third run with a sac fly, and the Rays had a 4-0 lead.

Jose Caballero grew the lead with a long solo home run to lead off the second inning.

As for the Rays offense, well, that was pretty much it. Yep, the team — other than Caballero — had a few infill hits, got lucky on a wild pitch, and then basically said, “yeah, we’re good”.

Caballero, by the way, not only had a serious home run, he also had quite a day on defense. He made some terrific plays on difficult ground balls from shortstop, like this one:

But this put out below is perhaps my favorite, just shows a guy who is hyperfocused on the play in front of him.

I’m not sure why Seattle decided he wasn’t in their plans, but in a year when the Rays are down pretty much every middle infielder on their depth chart down to Montgomery, thank goodness for Jose Caballero.

On the pitching side, Zack Littell was not the fast working strike thrower we’ve come to expect since his conversion to a starter role. The first inning was the messiest; he walked the bases loaded although he did get out of the jam without allowing a run. He had a bunch of deep counts, his pitch count was uncharacteristically high. I haven’t heard his postgame interview as of this writing, but I’m sure he’ll be talking about gritting through it without his best stuff (at least that is what I HOPE he’ll be saying, as opposed to, for example, “forearm tightness.).

In 4.1 innings he gave up a run on six hits and three walks.

Fortunately the Rays bullpen was back on track, including Peter Fairbanks, who has now moved past his inexplicable meltdown in Denver with two more effective outings.

Let me ask a question before I sign off — are intentional walks no longer a thing in baseball? Because I don’t know why you wouldn’t walk Mike Trout, at least if there is a man on base, given that no one else in the Angels lineup is nearly as likely to hurt you.

Anyway, Rays are off tomorrow as they travel back to OUR west coast, and resume play on Friday against the SF Giants. For those who are wondering, Blake Snell started for them on Monday, and at the moment is the announced starter for the Sunday game.