Tampa Bay Rays “open” series with fourth straight win
Final Score: Rays 7, Rockies 1
Ryne Stanek made his return to the 1st inning of Tampa Bay Rays games and he did not disappoint. KK and Brandon Lowe both hit bombs driving in a combined 6 runs on the night. The pitching was good once again and the Ryas rolled to their 4th win in as many games.
The Colorado Rockies sent Chad Bettis to the mound in their second visit ever to Tropicana Field with the first coming in 2004. Bettis would go five and two-thirds allowing 6 earned runs on 7 hits.
After Ryne Stanek’s impressive open, in which he struck out the side, Ryan Yarbrough did a bulk of the work out of the pen, eating up four and a third innings. In his final inning of work, the southpaw allowed the only run of the game cross the plate when Nolan Arenado doubled down the third base line scoring Charlie Blackmon. Working into the 6th inning, Yarbrough allowed 3 hits and struck out three. Wilmer Font and Jalen Beeks would come on to record the final two outs of the inning.
Beeks would stay on and finish the 7th inning giving way to Jose Alvarado who would strike out 2 in the 8th and gave way to Diego Castillo who finished it off in the 9th striking out the side.
At the plate, the Rays bats broke out in a big way scoring more runs than they did in any game against the Astros in their previous 4 game set.
In the 4th inning, Brandon Lowe collected his first hit of the season by way of an 2-run opposite field blast that scored Ji-Man Choi. Kevin Kiermaier followed a Yandy Diaz walk with a double. Daniel Robertson would drive in Yandy with an RBI ground out.
KK had a big day at the plate driving in 4 of the Rays 7 runs, 3 of which came in the form of a 3 run blast in the 6th. He tacked on the final run of the game in the 7th with a sacrifice fly scoring Tommy Pham.
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Chad Bettis took the loss while Ryan Yarbrough earned his first win of the year.
The final score was 7-1 in favor of the Rays who totaled 9 hits to the Rockies 6. The Rays move to 4-1 while the Rockies fall to 2-3. The win marks the fourth in a row for Kevin Cash’s crew. Tomorrow, Blake Snell looks to bounce back from a rough 2019 debut as he faces off against Kyle Freeland in what should be a great pitching matchup.