Jax Early and Jack Late Propel Rays to Victory: Rays 4, Orioles 1
Yandy knew he got that one off Kyle Bradish This game got off to an inauspicious start with a leadoff home run by Taylor Ward, but this was otherwise yet another persistent team effort to lead to the club’s 32nd win of the season as well as their eighth consecutive series win. Ward’s homer was no cheapy as it was a no-doubter that would have been out of any park in baseball, but that would be the only offense Baltimore was able to put together on the evening thanks to stellar pitching by Griffin Jax early and the bullpen behind him. Kyle Bradish was coming off easily his best start of the season where he one-hit the Yankees on May 13th, and came out of the gates hot striking out both Chandler Simpson and Junior Caminero to start the game on just ten pitches.
Jonathan Aranda put the brakes on that expedited inning with a tremendous 10-pitch at bat coming back from an early 1-2 count to draw a walk. Yandy Diaz, who came into this contest with a healthy . 421/.
476/. 569 triple-slash against Bradish in 21 career plate appearances, drove in Aranda with a double to tie the game in the bottom of the first and helping push Bradish over 30 pitches in the first inning. We’ll come back to that history in a bit.
Bradish settled won nicely through the rest of the first time through the lineup allowing just a walk to Palacios and a seeing eye single to Cedric Mullins. The next trip through the lineup saw Junior Caminero nearly hit one out to center while settling for a double, but nobody else was able to do anything against Bradish. The efficiency by which Bradish worked through innings two through five gave manager Craig Albernaz the confidence to allow Bradish to face Diaz a third time.
He chose poorly: View Link It was confusing to see Albernaz laugh in the face of both the times through the order penalty as well as the hot history Diaz has had against Bradish, but the move backfired in spectular fashion as Diaz hit the second-longest home run in Tropicana Field this season at 439 feet. Bradish struck out Richie Palacios before giving way to the Baltimore A bullpen to keep them in the game. Compare that moment to Kevin Cash pulling Griffin Jax after five innings and not allowing him to face Taylor Ward a third time.
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