Tampa Bay Rays Stay Red-Hot With Sweep of Seattle Mariners
· Yahoo Sports
The Tampa Bay Rays picked up another win and another series sweep as they took down the Seattle Mariners on the road at T-Mobile Park, 4-1, on Sunday.
The team picked up its sixth straight win of the season and moved to 71-46 on the year, now 5.5 games ahead of the New York Yankees for the AL East Division lead. It was a game where everything seemed to go right for both pitching and the offense for Tampa Bay.
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Here's what you need to know about the contest.
Seymour stepped up.With the Tampa Bay bullpen being short heading into the game on Sunday, Ian Seymour needed to provide Kevin Cash with length, and he did exactly that. Seymour picked up his ninth win of the season after going six strong innings, only allowing one earned run and striking out seven batters in the process.
The Rays' left-handed starter went 98 pitches and only allowed five hits in the contest. The bullpen followed with three innings of scoreless baseball. The game was finished off with a save by Steven Matz, his first of the season.
Rays offense comes alive.After a few games of subpar offense, the Rays' bats woke up on Sunday.
The team recorded 14 hits across their four runs in the game and only struck out four times in the contest. Chandler Simpson had a fantastic game, batting third for Tampa Bay. He went 4 for 5 with a run, and now moves his batting average up to .304 on the season. He continues to keep his hot bat alive, something that has been the most consistent across all hitters on the team since early June.
We finally found some life at the top of the batting order, as Yandy Diaz had himself a great game as well. He went 4-for-5 with one RBI in the game. Jonathan Aranda picked up a hit, and with Simpson moving up to the three spot, the trio combined to go 5-for-15.
Junior Caminero had another blank day, however, going 0 for 4 with two strikeouts and a walk. It's something worth monitoring, but maybe not concerning yet.
Can they keep this up?The Rays have been solid so far on this road trip, going undefeated since leaving Tropicana Field. The team picked up both series sweeps in Colorado and Seattle and will look to do the same in Sacramento against the Athletics. This is exactly what the Rays needed to accomplish as they headed into August following the MLB trade deadline. In terms of win/loss records, the teams the Rays are facing this month are towards the bottom of the standings.
In fact, only the San Diego Padres, who the team will host at Tropicana Field the last weekend of the month, currently have a record above .500. The team needs to continue to capitalize as they will prepare to head home this weekend and begin what will be ten straight games against division opponents.
Before that, though, they will look for a better start from Freddy Peralta, as he will get his second chance in a Tampa Bay uniform on Monday against the Athletics. He'll take on left-handed pitcher Jacob Lopez at Suter Health Park. First pitch is scheduled for 9:40 p.m. Eastern.