The story before the game was Cleveland top prospect Travis Bazzana was recalled to help kickstart a struggling Guardians offense which had posted a 95 wRc+ over the past two weeks. While Bazzana did his part to help matters drawing two walks, Nick Martinez and comapny caused trouble and bothered everybody in the Cleveland lineup limiting the Guardians to three hits and six baserunners in the shutout.
For awhile, this game had the feeling of a Spider-Man meme in action as both Martinez and Tanner Bibee were trading blows from the mound as both hurlers were attacking the zone with their full arsenals, albeit with different approaches. Bibee genereated 12 whiffs in the game and the Rays consistently pushed him into 18+ pitches per inning despite doing little against him in the first four innings. Bibee’s challenge was made easier when Junior Caminero fouled a ball off his face and had to leave the game after his first plate appearance. In-game reports have Caminero with a bruised jaw and day-to-day, and it’s likely he is sitting for tomorrow’s getaway game. The workload caught up to Bibee in the 5th inning when he walked Taylor Walls on six pitches and later allowed back-to-back singles to Ben Williamson and Jonathan Aranda to plate the game’s only run. The bullpen got the final 12 outs for Cleveland with nary a scare, leaving Rays pitching to do some heavy lifting.
Martinez was incredibly efficient this evening as he left the game after a leadoff walk to Bazzana in the 8th inning despite throwing just 78 pitches. Martinez had faced 25 batters to that point, so proactively getting in front of the fourth time through the order penality was the right call by Kevin Cash. However, the opportunity cost was Ian Seymour coming in and yet again walking his first batter on five pitches only because the umpire gifted a strike one call on the 4th pitch. That set up the sacrifice bunt by Brayan Rocchio and an intentional walk to Steven Kwan to load the bases. Seymour then found his command and struck out Chase DeLauter on three pitches allowing Cash to then lift Seymour for Kevin Kelly who kept Jose Ramirez in the yard, barely, to end the inning.
Cole Sulser came in to pitch the 9th and things got a little hairy with a two-out double by Angel Martinez which nearly left the yard and an intentional walk to Bazzana, but Sulser rebounded to strike out George Valera on three pitches to secure his first save and the Rays sixth consecutive win.
Getting back to Martinez, he has simply been incredible for the Rays this season with his efficiency and his results. He has now limited opposing batters to a .196 average swith 31 baserunners in 31 innings and just 3 home runs allowed. This was his fourth quality start on the season and he has yet to allow more than two earned runs in any outing. Martinez, no doubt, took notes watching Steven Matz go changeup heavy as Martinez leaned on his own changeup to keep the batters off balance all evening. DeLauter had the only solid contact off Martinez with a single in the first inning, but nobody else was able to get to Martinez in the rest of the outing. If you are a fan of pitching without gas, these last two nights have been an absolute pleasure to watch by the two free agent vets the front office targeted this winter.
Drew Rasumssen goes to the bump in the getaway game tomorrow, which cannot thrill the Guardians after what they have gone through these past two games. Let’s hope Junior’s jaw is good and he is back in the lineup when the club returns home to kick off a six-game homestand against the Giants and Blue Jays. Pitching and defense have won many a game for this franchise over the years, but tonight was truly about the pitching because Martinez rocked up on the mound and rocked the mound (Right).
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