The Rays look to sweeep the D’backs this afternoon after winning the first two games of the series. Charlie Morton, who has yet to lose a game in a Rays uniform, will face off against Robbie Ray. Centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier gets a rare day off. Here is the Arizona lineup: Dyson cf Escobar 3b Peralta DH Jones rf Marte 2b Flores 1b Ahmed ss Swihart lf Murphy c Ray p Here is the Rays lineup: Diaz 1b Pham lf Robertson 3b Garcia rf Zunino c B.Lowe 2b Adames ss N.Lowe dh Heredia cf Morton p<doc-sep>I’m not here for a long time. I’m just here for a [brief period of] time. Blake will be around for the full recount of events later this evening. I wouldn’t need to use brackets or substitute use of the word “good” if the D’backs could have pulled out of this with victory, but here we are. Taylor Clarke took his first MLB start today for Arizona against the Tampa Bay Rays Ryne Stanek, Jalen Beeks, Chaz Roe, and Diego Castillo. The kids tell me that means the Rays went with one of them fancy “opener” bullpen games, and it worked keeping Arizona to the tune of one measly run through seven innings. That was a result of a Nick Ahmed RBI double in the fourth to drive in Adam Jones. Matters were much more fortunate for the Rays on offense once they made it past Taylor Clarke. He held Tampa to two runs over six innings, not walking a single batter on seven hits. Brandon Lowe tagged Clarke for a solo home run as the lead off batter in the bottom of the first for the quick 1-0 lead. Tampa answered Nick’s RBI double in the fourth on a sacrifice (sarcasm) GIDP in the bottom half of the frame to quickly retake the lead. Once again, the back end of the Diamondbacks bullpen put forth their best effort to put the game outside the realm of competition. Tonight’s victim was Yoshihisa Hirano who allowed an additional three runs to score ballooning his ERA to 5.54 on the season. Tampa scratched across a two out insurance run in the bottom of the eighth courtesy of Matt Andriese for the 6-3 victory, but not before Wilmer Flores and Carson Kelly hit a pair of solo home runs in the top of the ninth.<doc-sep>Everything that yesterday’s pitching matchup was not, today’s was. Last night the Tampa Bay Rays utilized an “opener” bullpen game against Taylor Clarke making his first MLB start for Arizona. Today, it was two established veterans toeing the rubber in Robbie Ray and Charlie Morton. Both men proved to be a difficult challenge for opposing hitters, and I’m going to guess that it had something to do with a lack of familiarity. Morton and Ray combined to throw 19 strikeouts today. Ray as we know has an overpowering fastball while Morton was making the D’backs look foolish with his curveball. Arizona drew first blood in the top half of the 1st inning. Jarrod Dyson drew a 5 pitch walk as the first batter of the game. Morton followed by making Eduardo Escobar look absolutely lost at the plate on a strikeout. Designated hitter David Peralta, who went 0-4 last night, singled to right field to advance the speedy Dyson to third base. Adam Jones brought Dyson in on a fielder’s choice for the early 1-0 lead. The call on the field was initially that Tampa had converted the double play, but a D’backs replay challenge clearly showed that first baseman Avisail Garcia’s foot came off the bag before he had the ball, so the ruling was overturned. The D’backs had an opportunity to add to their lead in the 2nd were it not for a head scratching base running blunder by Wilmer Flores. Flores laced a single to Tommy Pham in left field to lead off the 2nd, but mistakenly though he could stretch it into a double. The only problem was that Flores was just hitting the first base bag when Pham was fielding the ball, so Flores was out by a mile on a strong throw from Pham. Flores must have though he was Jarrod Dyson for a moment. Nick Ahmed immediately followed that blunder with a double to right field which would have at the very least put Flores at third had he been content with the single. Arizona’s one out threat would not come to pass because Morton caught Blake Swihart looking at a backdoor breaking ball and then John Ryan Murphy lined out to left field. However, Arizona did eventually add the elusive second run in the top of the 3rd fairly similar to their scoring formula in the 1st. Dyson drew his second walk of the game in as many at bats. Escobar once again appeared to be lost at the plate on another strikeout. The Freight Train lined a single to center advancing Dyson to second base. After an Adam Jones strikeout, Ketel Marte singled to center himself to score Dyson for the 2-0 lead. Robbie Ray was overwhelming the Rays through most of his start today allowing only 4 hits and 3 walks and no runs. He struck out at least two batters in all of the innings he pitched save for one, and his swing and miss stuff was really working. 8 of his 11 strikeouts on the day were a result of the batter swinging through strike 3, and through the 2nd and 3rd innings he struck out 5 of 6 batters faced. There is no other way to put it other than to say he was dominant and efficient needing only 95 pitches to complete 5 & 2⁄ 3 innings. Torey Lovullo opted to lift Ray from the game with 2 outs in the 6th and runners on first and second. Ray’s 11 strikeouts were the most he has had in a game so far this season. From that point forward, the D’backs bullpen was responsible for maintaining a slim 2 run lead, so it’s understood if you watched the rest of the game from the edge of your seat provided the memories of recent games. Andrew Chafin secured the final out of the bottom of the 6th after a long, 10 pitch strikeout against Brandon Lowe. Yoan Lopez took the mound for the 7th which led to some initial speculation from the broadcast booth as to who would have the 8th. Would Archie Bradley be trusted in that spot after his most recent meltdown in Colorado? Lopez was locked down, as he has been this whole season, in the 7th sandwiching a groundout between striking out Willy Adames and Gulliermo Heredia. A bit surprising is that Lovullo ran Lopez back out for the bottom of the 8th inning already at 16 pitches, but it’s difficult to blame Torey given the struggles out of the bullpen lately. Unfortunately, Lopez failed to record a single out in the 8th through 3 batters before being pulled. Yandy Diaz walked on 6 pitches and moved over to second on a 1 pitch single to right field from Tommy Pham. Lopez induced a much needed grounder from Daniel Robertson to Escobar at third base, but he botched the throw to second allowing Diaz to score and make it a 2-1 game. Oh no, here we go again. Not having much of a choice, Lovullo turned to Yoshihisa Hirano. He hit the first batter he faced, Avisail Garcia, to load the bases with no outs. The only good thing to come of that was that there was a force out at every base, which played beautifully to the Diamondbacks favor. Mike Zunino grounded to the best fielder out there, Nick Ahmed, who fired home to preserve the lead. Lovullo then motioned for the lefty on lefty matchup calling on T.J. McFarland to face Brandon Lowe. It worked perfectly as Lowe struck out for the second out, and then Marte snagged a liner up the middle from Adames to keep it a 2-1 game. Arizona did nothing to secure an insurance run in the top of the 9th, so it was Greg Holland’s victory to secure with 3 outs remaining and a 1 run lead. Holland had not blown a save so far this season and had not pitched since May 3rd. Holland recorded the first 2 outs of the inning quickly on a groundout and strikeout.<doc-sep>TV: FOX Sports Sun TIME: Pregame coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. WATCH IT LIVE ON FOX SPORTS GO Arizona Diamondbacks (20-16, second in the NL West) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (23-12, first in the NL East) PITCHING PROBABLES Diamondbacks: Robbie Ray (2-1, 3.79 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 44 strikeouts) Rays: Charlie Morton (3-0, 2.52 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 48 strikeouts) LINE Rays favored by 1 1/2 runs; over/under is 7 runs BOTTOM LINE Arizona enters the matchup as losers of their last three games. The Rays are 11-7 on their home turf. The Tampa Bay offense has compiled a .256 batting average as a team this season, good for tenth in the American League. Brandon Lowe leads the team with an average of .307. The Diamondbacks are 13-9 on the road. Arizona ranks third in the majors in hitting with a .261 batting average, David Peralta leads the club with an average of .312. The Rays won the last meeting 12-1. Blake Snell notched his third victory and Avisail Garcia went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs for Tampa Bay. Merrill Kelly registered his third loss for Arizona. TOP PERFORMERS Lowe leads the Rays with seven home runs and is batting .307. Tommy Pham is 12-for-38 with two doubles, a triple, a home run and eight RBIs over the last 10 games for Tampa Bay. Peralta leads the Diamondbacks with 44 hits and is batting .312. Eduardo Escobar has 11 hits and is batting .000 over the last 10 games for Arizona. LAST 10 GAMES Rays: 6-4, .240 batting average, 3.10 ERA, outscored opponents by nine runs Diamondbacks: 6-4, .234 batting average, 4.50 ERA Rays Injuries: Hunter Wood: 10-day IL (shoulder), Jose De Leon: 60-day IL (elbow), Anthony Banda: 60-day IL (elbow), Austin Meadows: 10-day IL (thumb), Joey Wendle: 10-day IL (wrist), Matt Duffy: 10-day IL (back). Diamondbacks Injuries: Taijuan Walker: 60-day IL (elbow), Silvino Bracho: 60-day IL (elbow), Steven Souza Jr.: 10-day IL (knee), Adam Jones: day-to-day (illness), Jake Lamb: 10-day IL (quad), Alex Avila: 10-day IL (quad).<doc-sep>
Day baseball is an interesting creature. In the case of Wednesday’s outing against the Diamondbacks, the Rays offered special discounted senior tickets (as they do periodically on Wednesdays throughout the season). The rest of us just had to watch at work. 8663 showed up still for a day game, and in my opinion, that ain’t bad. The game saw the curiously named matchup of Robbie Ray vs. the Rays (as led by Charlie Morton). Curious, and historical, because it’s the first time EVER a pitcher has made a start against a team that has his surname as their team name. Using only current #MLB teams, Robbie Ray is the only pitcher to make a start vs. a team with the same name as his surname (today; June 6, 2016). 4 others have made relief apps: Chris Ray (last: 2011), Billy Brewer (last: 1999), Jim Brewer (last: 1976) and Conrad Cardinal (1963). pic.twitter.com/7e9mEQBfIB — Patrick Kurish (@PKurish) May 8, 2019 The Diamondbacks struck early against Morton, with an Adam Jones fielder’s choice that scored Jarrod Dyson. Then in the third, it was a Ketel Marte single that once again scored Dyson. Man... what is Dyson’s OBP this season? .393. Not bad! Anyway, not ideal, because his general on-base-gettingness proved to be a bit of a hindrance to the Rays today. Morton, by all accounts, had a fine outing. He went five innings, giving up seven hits and two runs, but one major area of concern was the walks. He walked four batters over the course of the game (though he did manage to strike out eight). I only note the walks as a problem because guess who had two of those walks? Jarrod Dyson. And guess which innings they were in? The first and third. You guys are great at guessing games. Point being, the two runs that Morton ultimately gave up in the game were as a direct result of the walks. Not ideal. Morton was replaced in the sixth by my new favorite reliever Emilio Pagán who had a scoreless 11-pitch inning and, what’s that a 0.90 ERA? Bless. Robbie Ray had himself a nice outing against his namesake nemesis, going 5.2 innings with four hits and a whopping 11 strikeouts. He had three walks in the game, but nothing the Rays were able to convert, unfortunately. In the eighth inning Yoan Lopez walked Yandy Diaz, followed by a no-out single from Tommy Pham, and I started wondering: could the Rays find their retribution as the result of a walk? Why, yes, as a matter of fact. A walk, an an overthrown ball to second that should have been a double play but instead allowed Diaz to score and Pham to advance to third on a Daniel Robertson fielder’s choice. The Rays were now down by only a single run, with two men on and still no outs. A painful looking hit-by-pitch to Avisail Garcia loaded the bases, then Pham was unable to score on a Zunino single, but Heredia quickly made up for the lost runner and re-loaded the bases. With two outs, Willy Adames had a hard hit ball, but it was a lineout right into the shift, and the Rays left three men stranded. Also worth noting from the eighth that Zunino looked a little pained after running to first, so this might be a thing. Nick Ciuffo, newly arrived to the team just this morning, replaced Zunino for the ninth inning. This might be worth monitoring. Catcher Mike Zunino hobbled into first base during the eighth inning. #Rays already placed C Michael Perez (oblique tightness) on the 10-day IL earlier today. pic.twitter.com/34wp70RZhY — Josh Tolentino (@JCTSports) May 8, 2019 The Rays, down by a run, had their last chance to make magic happen in the bottom of the ninth. A Yandy Diaz double with two outs got excitement levels up. Then Tommy Pham singled. Kevin Kiermaier came on to pinch hit, representing a potential walk-off for the team. He laced an absolutely perfect hit to center, only to have Tommy Pham tagged out at home trying to score the winning run. Yandy Diaz did manage to score, however, tying up the game for the team. Cash challenged the tag at the plate, but lost the appeal, so onward into extra innings.