Early season schedules are a peculiarity, and a getaway game on an early April afternoon is one of those things. The Rays were licking their wounds from a rough loss on Tuesday night—but a blessedly solid outing from the returning Shane McClanahan—and were hoping to come away with a series win before hitting the road. They would be leaning on Drew Rasmussen to handle the pitching, while the Brewers were counting on the young and exciting Jacob Misiorowski.
With two strong pitchers out today, scoring was always going to be at a premium. The Rays went 1-2-3 in the top of the first, then the Brewers did the same in the bottom of the inning.
In the second, there were two back-t0-back outs, but then the game fell into a delay as a 100mph fastball got foul tipped right into the mask of home plate umpire CB Bucknor, taking him to the ground. The delay continued as Bucknor was removed from the game. Chad Fairchild came in to replace him, going with a three-man crew instead.
The delay didn’t seem to hurt Nick Fortes at all as he extended the inning for the Rays with a single. Chandler Simpson followed that up with a walk, but the Rays failed to take advantage of the opportunity and a groundout ended the inning. In the home half, Garrett Mitchell hit a one-out single. Mitchell then stole second, but his hustle would go unrewarded as the next two batters failed to make anything happen.
Richie Palacios got hit by a pitch to start the third, and then Yandy Diaz accepted the challenge and lobbed a home run to right field, putting the Rays up 2-0.
With one out, Jake Fraley hit a double, but two outs then followed to leave him stranded. In the home half, David Hamilton laid down a leadoff bunt, which I would normally really make fun of, however Junior Caminero came in to get the dribbling infield hit and then completely overthrew first, so Hamilton was safe and the play was ruled an error. Joey Ortiz hit a long fly ball that really looked like it might be trouble and Hamilton was already rounding third when Cedric Mullens made an incredible catch in center, sending Ortiz to the dugout and Hamilton back to first. Hamilton then stole secnd. Sadly, Brice Turang then did exactly what Ortiz wanted to do and hit a home run to tie the game up 2-2. William Contreras then reached on a throwing error by Caminero, the second in this same inning. Two outs followed, thankfully keeping the second error from doing any additional damage.
Simpson got a one-out single in the top of the fourth. Ben Williamson then hit into a force out, eliminating Simpson at second but the Brewers failed to turn the double play. Palacios then walked. Even with two runners on, though, the Rays didn’t manage to score any runs. Rasmussen was back on his game in the home half, getting the Brewers out in order.
The Rays went 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the inning Turang got a two-out walk, but the Brewers couldn’t turn around a run.
With one out in the sixth there was some contention over whether or not Nick Fortes was safe at first as it seemed like Jake Bauers might have come off the bag. The Rays challenged the play, but the call on the field was upheld. Drew Rasmussen’s day was done going 5.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 1 HR on 89 pitches. Overall a really good outing for Rasmussen, whose only major issue was the Turang home run, which he got back into the groove from almost immediately. He actually set a career high of consecutive strikeouts, getting six in a row. He was replaced by Ian Seymour, who gave up a leadoff single to Christian Yelich. Bauers then grounded into a double play to eliminate the threat. A strikeout ended the inning.
Misiorowski was done after six, being replaced by Grant Anderson. Anderson got the Rays out in order in the top of the seventh. The Rays returned the favor in the home half, getting the Brewers out 1-2-3.
Aaron Ashby was next out of the Brewers’ pen, he gave up a leadoff walk to Jonathan Aranda. There was some pinch work to be done with both a pinch hitter and pinch runner, but a flyout and double play ended the inning. In the bottom of the inning there was plenty of ugly fielding after about a million positional shiftsm including a new pitcher in Griffin Jax. Joey Ortiz reached on an error by Carson Williams who missed a liner that took an ugly little hop. Turang then laid down a sac bunt that Ben Williamson got to first nicely, but Junior Caminero failed to get a grip on the ball, another error for Caminero. Contreras singled to load the bases, followed by a single by Yelich that brought in two runs. Jake Bauers walked and there were still no outs in the inning. Mason Englert replaced Jax, then Mitchell doubled to score two more. A pop out finally got one out, but then a ground out scored another run. Hamilton singled, scoring another run. The Rays would finally get the last out of the inning, but the score was now a very tilted 8-2.
DL Hall came in for the Brewers. Cedric Mullins was hit by a pitch to start the top of the ninth. With one out, Simpson singled. The Rays were unable to take advantage of the baserunners though, and the game wrapped up with no extra runs scored.
