The Rays were looking to wrap up their home series against the Reds by avoiding the series sweep. To get there, they had Nick Martinez on the mound up against Brandon Williamson for the Reds. This sets up the delightful situation where we will see Williamson vs Williamson at-bats.
TJ Friedl kicked off the first inning with a leadoff single. With one out, Elly De La Cruz hit into a force out, eliminating Friedl, and then on the next batter, Martinez got out of the inning with no damage done. The Rays went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
Martinez had a nice follow-up inning, getting the Reds out in order in the top half of the inning. Ryan Vilade took a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning, then Jonny DeLuca walked right behind him. With two men on, Ben Williamson won the first Williamson vs Williamson challenge, hitting an RBI single to bring Vilade home. Chandler Simpson hit a sac fly, bringing in DeLuca, with a little help from a throwing error by Will Benson. Nick Fortes got a free bag after being hit by a pitch. Taylor Walls then hit into a force out, eliminating Fortes at second but advancing Williamson to third. Yandy Diaz then singled, bringing in the third run of the inning.
The Reds once again went 1-2-3 in the third. Perhaps they shouldn’t have used up so many runs earlier in the series? Not that we’re complaining of course. In the home half, Junior Caminero wasted no time extending the lead, getting a leadoff solo home run.
Ryan Vilade singled, and then appeared to get caught in a double play off the bat of Johnny DeLuca, but the Rays called for a review of the whole play. The out call at second was upheld, but it was clear almost immediately that DeLuca was safe at first, and the out call there was overturned. Unfortunately, Williamson then hit into another double play, and that did end the inning.
Matt McLain started the fourth inning with a single, but it was the only fumble from Martinez in the inning as he got the next three outs in order. Simpson started the bottom of the inning with a single, but the double plays kept coming as Nick Fortes eliminated the baserunner. A third out followed to end the inning with no scoring on either side.
Nathaniel Lowe singled in the fifth, followed quickly by a double from Spencer Steer, putting two men in scoring position and no outs. Will Benson then walked to load the bases and bring the potential tying run to the plate. Not a good place for Martinez and the Rays to be in. P.J. Higgins hit a sac fly to bring in the first Reds’ run of the game. Friedl reached on a fielder’s choice, but the Rays were able to get the runner out at home, and then collect the final out to end the inning. It was a bad situation that could have been much worse, so giving up only one run was a pretty decent way for it to end. Still, not the best inning we’ve seen from Martinez this game.
Yandy Diaz singled to start the home half, and Williamson moved to cover first, but the ball got past him, then Yandy had to do a quick turnaround to get back to first, which he had overrun. He slipped and fell on his butt on the bag. It was pretty delightful. Jonathan Aranda walked. With one out, Vilade singled, bringing Diaz home and getting back the run from the top of the inning. This also chased Williamson from the game, replacing him with Connor Phillips. Phillips faced only one batter, inducing a double play to end the game.
With one out in the top of the sixth, Sal Stewart singled into left. Lots of broken bats in this game, too. Shards of wood everywhere. A piece of Stewart’s bat actually almost hit Eugenio Suarez in the on-deck circle, yikes. Two outs followed the single, sending the Reds back to the bullpen with no runs scored. The Rays didn’t get any further ahead in the bottom of the inning, though Fortes did have a hit that looked like it might go for extra bases, except it was robbed by Friedl in the outfield on a really spectacular catch.
Chandler Simpson returned the favor to Spencer Steer to start the seventh, snagging a fly ball at the wall. Immediately after that, Simpson made another incredible grab. Man, he’s fun to watch out there. A swinging strikeout ended the inning. Walls singled to start the home half of the seventh. Diaz then singled, getting Walls all the way to third. Aranda was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Junior Caminero then grounded out, scoring another runner in Walls and two runners in scoring position. That was it for Phillips, who was replaced by Tony Santillan. A pinch-hitting Richie Palacios reached on a fielder’s choice with Diaz getting tagged out in a rundown between third and home. The Rays ended up having to settle for the one run, but it extended their lead to 6-1.
Nick Martinez was still in heading into the eighth, and he’d really course-corrected nicely from the one bad inning. He was obviously still feeling good, because he got the side out in order. Brock Burke and his 60-grade baseball name was the next reliever out of the pen for the Reds and he got the Rays out in order.
Martinez’s day was over in the ninth, his final line for the day was 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K on 95 pitches. Aside from that one rough inning, it was a spectacular outing for Martinez against his former team. Kevin Kelly came out of the pen to replace him, hoping to get the final 3 outs of the inning cleanly. And he did just that, getting the Reds out in order to wrap things up and keep the sweep at bay.
