Rays 4 Mariners 3: Late comeback leads to a victorious series opener

I’ll be honest: when the Rays were down 3-1 and had two outs in the bottom of the eighth, I started writing this recap. It was all about the Rays anemic offense and the mystery of why Chris Devenski continues to pitch meaningful innings on this team.

But while I was writing, a funny thing happened: the Rays strung together a bunch of walks and hits to take a lead, and then held it as Pete Fairbanks slammed the door in the ninth.

Honestly I still have to keep checking the MLB scoreboard to make sure I did not dream up this victory.

To be clear: the Rays offense is still too anemic and Chris Devenski is still the weak link in a middling bullpen, but — Rays Win!

I thought this would be a tough game to win, and an exciting but low-scoring pitching duel between the Mariners Bryan Woo and the Rays’ Taj Bradley, and for several innings it was, absent a solo Seattle homerun off a middle-middle fastball.

But in the fourth inning Woo appeared to have some discomfort in his leg, and after trying to stretch it out, presumably without success, he left the game. So that’s a shame for those who were looking forward to a great pitching match-up between Woo and Bradley, but clearly was a lucky break for the Rays.

The Rays seemed even more fortunate when his replacement, Tayler Saucedo, had a really poor one-third of an inning. He overthrew first base on an attempted pickoff, allowing Richie Palacios to get to third, and he then threw a wild pitch on which Palacios scored what was then the tying run. Two singles followed. But he was replaced by Trent Thornton who retired the next two batters easily. What should have been a big inning was merely a fizzle.

For the next several innings the score remained tied, 1-1, with Bradley giving way to Colin Poche in the sixth inning, who continued his strong comeback.

But then Kevin Cash decided his best bet for the seventh inning was Chris Devenski. Who doesn’t want the guy with the ERA north of six, who has been worth -.6 WAR this year, to keep the game tied in the late innings? He gave up a walk followed by a home run. Good-bye tie, the Mariners took a 3-1 lead. And just for good measure, he walked two other hitters. He was finally replaced by Phil Maton who got the last out.

I know it’s Cash’s way to save the A bullpen for protecting leads, and in his approach a lead is a lead — not a tie. But what is going on if that leaves you with a pitcher who has struggled as much as Devenski as your not-A-bullpen option? Is there really no one on the Durham roster who would be an improvement?

Up until that fateful eighth inning the Rays had gotten their hits — eight of them. But they were all singles, and the Mariners did not walk any batters, so the Rays never managed a real rally.

And it looked like the eighth would be more of the same, with two quick outs.

But then Taylor Walls drew the Rays first walk of the night, and Jose Siri followed with a single. Walls came around the score on the team’s first extra base hit, a Ben Rortvedt ground rule double. That the ball bounced out of play looked like bad luck for the Rays, since Siri might have scored as well if it had stayed in play.

Caballero next drew the Rays second walk of the night, and up stepped Yandy Diaz. As is typical for him, he hit the ball hard, but on the ground, and it looked like it might have been good for the final out, but instead it was just out of the reach of the infield, and it went for a 2-RBI single, giving the Rays the first lead of the night, 4-3.

I barely had time to contemplate this turn of events and get nervous about protecting a run run lead in the ninth before Pete Fairbanks had retired the Mariners quickly and in order, preserving the one-run victory.

Lest I forget, Taj Bradley did have a relatively good night. He walked too many (four), and threw a batting practice pitch down the middle that got socked for a home run, but he only gave up two hits and struck out eight. He was pulled with one out in the sixth at 88 pitches, and I’m not sure what Cash and Kyle Snyder saw to make them feel they needed to pull him, especially if that meant given an inning to Devenski. But I’d say Taj continues to improve and hopefully will play an important role on the team for years to come.