Who’s your daddy?!: Rays 9, Mets 0

A very happy Father’s day gift for all Rays fan dad’s out there.

The New York Mets had not been swept this season. They had only lost one home series all year, and held MLB’s best home record. In fact, coming into this weekend series, the Mets had the best record in baseball.

Had is the very purposeful word choice there, because all of those need updating after the Tampa Bay Rays finished off an impressive road sweep, putting the flush in Flushing.

Wonderful Wizard of Baz

Shane Baz has not always had an easy time this season. He’s battled, he’s switch pitch mixes, he’s tinkered, and he’s rode the roller coaster of a backend starter. But today? This feels like it could be a turning point performance.

With the Rays facing 7 straight games after today, they really needed some length from Baz. Shane delivered big time, coming back out in the 7th to push his day into 6.2 IP and 105 pitches.

Of the 15 whiffs and and 6 Ks in Shane’s ledger today, the most impressive and important came in the bottom of the 3rd. After the Rays had pushed ahead another run to make the score 4-0, the Mets mounted a bigtime threat. After a single and a couple of walks bookended around a pop-up and a K, up stepped Pete Alonso with the bases loaded.

Baz worked the red hot Alonso carefully. After a knuckle curve that nicked the zone was called a ball, Baz fell behind 3-1. That’s when Baz leveled up. First with a gutsy 97 MPH high and tight fastball that got Alonso whiffing, Baz followed that up with a high and away 99 mph fastball to get the swinging K and escape the jam.

You can call Baz anthropogenic climate change the way he devastated the Polar Bear.

On the season, Baz’s slider has been one of his worst performing pitches despite grading out extremely well in most pitch grading models. Today, there seemed to be a shift. The slider velo was up 3 MPH and seemed to be a faster, tighter, almost more cutter type action on it. The pitch worked extremely well today, and he used it a good deal (18%), which is way up from the previous slider usage of just 7%. Instead of being a Fastball Curve pitcher with a few change ups and a show me slider, today Baz had a fairly even spread amongst all his secondaries and that Slider/Cutter whatever you want to call it being the most exciting development.

Anytime a pitcher tinkers with their pitch mix AND shape? Oh baby, we got a stew going.

The Boys are Boppin’

The Mets were the best run prevention and pitching team in baseball, especially at home. Before this series the Mets had given up more than 5 runs just 10 times, and at home just 3 total times. The Rays now doubled that home total and pushed the Mets out of the number 1 spot in fewest runs given up.

9 was the magic number today. Rays scored 9 runs, with all 9 Rays reaching base, drawing 9 walks and notching 9 hits.

Total team contribution from small ball to big bops, the Rays truly took apart a Mets pitching staff and bullpen that had been nearly unbeatable to this point.

The capper on the day and the series came from the young budding superstar Junior Caminero, on Father’s Day in front of his dad in the stands. As Cami rounded the bases he pointed out to his dad celebrating amongst a completely stunned Mets crowd.

The Stable is back?!

If there is one truly consistent concerning area on this Rays club, it has been the bullpen. There’s been a tight rope walk most games looking for that consistency and quality that Rays fans have become so privileged with. With the loss of Manny Rodriguez, perhaps the 2nd best arm in the pen this year, Kevin Cash’s job at managing the late game became all the more difficult.

Facing an incredibly difficult threat of a top 4 team in their house, lead by past and future All Stars and MVP candidates Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Juan Soto, the Rays bullpen were absolute nails.

11.1 IP on the series, 0 runs given up. Of particular note, the former Met Eric Orze was a rock gobbling up 2.2 IP in games 1 and 3, and really providing the bridge innings that MRod was so key for Cash’s schemes.

Start Spreading the News: The Rays are GOOD

After a frustrating road series in Boston, where the Rays mostly beat themselves and left feeling like they could have gotten much more than they did, this was a tough mental test. The Mets have truly been an elite franchise this year. They are a very, VERY good team that has been excellent in Citi Field. This was a true first half test for the Rays to see where they match up as we are about a month away from the All Star Break.

Not only did the Rays out compete the Mets, they absolutely answered every single call.

Bouncing back from a heartbreaking inning with a ton of runs and a big flip the script inning? Check.

Showing they can put up another big set of runs on back to back days? Big time check.

Finishing off a sweep on the road and showing they can put up bunches of runs without a single huge inning? Three multi run innings gives you another big check today.

24 runs scored to 9 given up, good for boosting up that run differential with another +15.

Fun series, impressive series, and maybe a series to create some more believers.