Against the worst team in the American League, the best players for the Tampa Bay Rays finally were their players.
As a result, the Rays avoided replacing the Minnesota Twins in the AL cellar.
Tampa Bay won 7-3 over the Twins in a game with several heroes.
There was pitcher Chris Archer, who threw six innings of three-hit, one-run baseball. Archer is still only 6-15 on the season, but he’s 2-2 in his last four games.
There was third baseman Evan Longoria, who hit his 24th home run, and his sixth in his last six games. Longoria is on pace to finish with 36 homers.
There was closer Alex Colome, who was called on after the Rays gave up two runs in the ninth. It was his 27th save of the season.
“Nice bounceback win,” said Rays’ manager Kevin Cash. “Yesterday was a little sloppy; I’m glad we came out more energized today. Put together some good at-bats, got to their young pitcher early with the 1st-inning run and then some home runs. I thought Arch was good. He just ran out of pitches there at the end, and drove his pitch count up a little bit in that last (6th) inning. Brad Miller is still doing a lot of things for us. Loved the way he ran the bases today, aggressive, put himself in scoring position … just tremendous baserunning.”
Archer said he would have liked to have gone longer.
“I don’t know, I feel like lately I’ve been pretty efficient even when I do have a lot of strikeouts,” Archer said. “Tonight the 6th inning got away from me a little bit, but I’m not even worried about it. We got a team win, it was a great team game and I’m hanging my hat on that. … Six was all the team needed tonight. Our bullpen was pretty fresh, and it was a team win. That’s what matters. I definitely want to go deeper, but it’s not all about me; it’s about the team win.”
Matt Andriese pitches for the Rays today.
