After a 3 game sweet of St. Louis, Rays look to keep the streak going against the Minnesota Twins.
Manuel Margot lead off with a walk, but Harold Ramirez GIDP and Yandy Diaz grounded out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 1st inning Drew Rasmussen gave up a 108.9 MPH Home Run to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.
Twins take an early 1-0 lead. That is okay, as the Rays’ answered in the top of the 2nd inning with an Issac Parades solo HR of his own. 108 MPH, 40 degrees, and 406 ft.
We got a tie ball game at 1!
One of the hardest hit balls of the game came from Gary Sanchez in the bottom of the 2nd inning with a 109.5 MPH grounder towards 3rd base, where Yandy Diaz was able to get a hold of it and throw Sanchez out.
Between the 2nd and 5th innings, nothing too crazy was happening, with Drew Rasmussen able to work around a few walks and singles on his way to striking out a couple, but in the 5th everything started to unravel.
Rasmussen first faced Luis Arraez who grounded out. Then Rass gives up another Home Run to Byron Buxton.
Great pitch, and not a great swing by Buxton. Surprised it went out, but it gives the Twins a 2-1 lead.
After a Carlos Correa double, Drew Rasmussen was facing Max Kepler, who hit a hard ground ball to Harold Ramirez, which should’ve been the second out of the inning. However, it bounced off and allowed Correa to score and the Twins to get a 3-1 lead.
Jorge Polanco doubled to bring in Kepler and give the Twins their 4th run of the game.
A walk to Trevor Larnach and a Gary Sanchez double quickly makes it 5-1 Twins and the end of the night for Drew Rasmussen, being lifted in favor of Ralph Garza Jr with runners on 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out. Drew’s final line: 4.1 IP, 9 H, 7 Runs (4 Earned), 2 Walks and 3 Strikeouts on 10 whiffs. But Jared, the score is only 5-1 and Drew Rasmussen gave up 7 runs.
Spoiler Alert.
Gio Urshela grounded to Yandy Diaz, who threw home for the forceout of Trevor Larnach. But back-to-back singles by Nick Gordon and Luiz Arreaz (remember him from earlier this inning?) Gives the Twins a 7-1 lead.
Garza Jr. finally got the bleeding to stop, but the damage was still still done. Rays go into the 6th down 7-1.
In the 7th inning, the Rays showed some sign of life, as Randy Arozarena flew around the bases off a misplayed fly ball by Twins outfielder Nick Gordon.
Inside the park HR for Randy to make it 7-2 Rays. Next batter, Vidal Brujan, ALSO hit his first career HR to get the Rays within a grand slam.
In the top of the 8th inning, the Rays added on after a leadoff walk by Manuel Margot and a Harold Ramirez single to put runners on the corners with only 1 out. Randy, after a bizarre play where his bat hit the ball, the bat flew out of his hand, and then the batter-less bat hit the ball again down the first base foul line and kept the ball fair. Randy was originally tagged out after that play, but it was ruled a foul ball.
Randy grounded out on the next pitch, but it was enough to score Margot from third. Rays still down 7-4, but its a little closer.
Calvin Faucher came on in the bottom of the 8th inning. Ralph Garza Jr goes 2.2 IP, 2 hits, 0 Runs, 1 walk, and 0 strikeouts.
It was always going to be a longshot to win this game, but Carlos Correa sealed in the bottom of the 8th inning with a 2 run HR to give the Twins a 9-4 lead.
That would be you final as the Rays lose 9-4 on their first game of a 10 game road trip. They will look to get back on track tomorrow with Shane Baz making his long anticipated return to the rotation. He will face Chi-Chi Gonzalez. Game time is at 2:10 PM EDT