Versatile Offense, Stingy Pitching Fueling Tampa Bay Rays’ Recent Surge

It is not so much that the Tampa Bay Rays have been winning and creeping up on the New York Yankees in the American League East. Rather, it has been the fashion in which they have been doing it. That is to say they have been getting it done seemingly every which way imaginable.

Take, for instance, May 31 when they hit five home runs in a 16-3 victory at Houston. Or June 5 against visiting Texas when, with two outs in the ninth inning and the Rays trailing 3-2, they walked off by scoring a pair of runs on a ball that did not leave the infield. Taylor Walls’ grounder was fielded by second baseman Marcus Semien and somehow Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero scored on a play that no doubt had Rangers’ manager Bruce Bochy spitting up on the bus ride back to the hotel.

“You’re not living and dying by the home run ball,” said Brandon Lowe. “You’re not living and dying by having four hits in an inning. We can hit the home run. We can get four hits in an inning. We can bunt a guy (home) and (score runs with) good baserunning. It’s a dangerous thing to have as an offense when you have so many ways that you can score.”

The Rays, who head into play Wednesday 2.5 games behind the Yankees, had won 19 of 25 prior to losing to the Orioles at Steinbrenner Field on Tuesday evening. They scored at least seven runs in 10 of the wins and had at least a four-run margin of victory in 10 games. Each of the six losses was by one or two runs, and by a total of eight runs.

“It feels like a pretty complete offense right now,” said manager Kevin Cash. “The home runs have been coming, the base hits, the good decisions on the basepaths, getting bunts down when needed. We are doing a lot of things really well.”

While contributions have come from top to bottom in the lineup, the Rays’ longest-tenured players, Lowe and Yandy Diaz, have been hot. On May 13, Lowe was hitting .199 with a .567 OPS. Through Tuesday evening’s game against the Orioles, the numbers were .263/.775. In 15 games since May 29, Diaz is hitting .369 (24-for-65) to raise his average from .238 to .266.

“They have been our best hitters for quite some time, and I know to start the year they were not getting the hits or results that they wanted,” said Cash. “They were doing a lot of things (not seen in the box score) that we really appreciated like continuing to hit the ball hard. What is taking shape with our offense is that we have had a bunch of really good at-bats from six to nine (in the order), then turning over to get to the top of the lineup and present opportunities for those guys to knock them in.”

Which brings us to the bottom half of the lineup. Jake Mangum, who made his MLB debut March 30, was a sparkplug before he missed five weeks (April 24 to May 30) with a groin strain, and has been sparkplug since returning. In fact, he has been good as gold with runners in scoring position this season hitting .475 (19-for-40) with 20 RBI. The rookie outfielder is also 10-for-10 in stolen bases on a team that leads major in thefts with 97.

“We have a lot of faith in each other,” said Mangum. “We have a lot of confidence in not just ourselves, but each other. We have a great pitching staff, we have a great offense and we have to keep going.”

Stifling the opposition

Put four runs on the board and the Rays are likely to win. Score five runs and the opposition better say its prayers. Indeed, the Rays are 32-7 when scoring at least four runs and an eye-opening 26-2 when at least five runners touch the plate, the best figure in the majors.

Of course, for such numbers to surface, the pitching must be doing its job. The Rays are third in the American League in ERA (3.44) and WHIP (1.18) with the bullpen contributing mightily to the cause, including piecing together a shutout streak of 17 2/3 innings that was snapped by the O’s on Tuesday.

The starters and bullpen have complemented each other very well, whether it is the relievers bailing out a member of the rotation following a subpar outing, or a starting pitcher going deep to the give the ‘pen a breather. A prime example of the former would be Taj Bradley lasting only four innings (five unearned runs) at Citi Field against the Mets on June 13. Five relievers followed and combined to blank New York on three hits over five innings in a 7-5 win. On the flip side, Ryan Pepiot took the mound Monday evening versus Baltimore and allowed only four hits and one run in eight innings. That gave the bullpen a breather in the midst of the Rays playing 19 games in 20 days.

“They are certainly feeding off each other,” said Cash. “The starters are a tightknit group, the relievers are a tightknit group and they are all pulling for each other.”

They know how to induce double plays as well. The Rays are second in MLB with the opposition grounding into 70 twin killings with four of the five starters – Shane Baz (12), Taj Bradley (11), Zack Littell (11) and Drew Rasmussen (10) among the leaders. The staff also helps itself in limiting free passes as the Rays are second in the majors with a 2.71 BB/9 rate. Littell has been sparkling in that area with a mark of 1.07.