TAMPA -- From the beginning, Saturday afternoon just felt different for the Rays. Right-hander Drew Rasmussen was masterful, and the bullpen preserved his work. The Rays blasted three home runs, including a pair by Yandy Díaz.
The result was an ultra-efficient 4-0 victory against the Dodgers at George M. Steinbrenner Field to snap a four-game losing streak, and provide a flashback to the team that was in serious AL East contention back in June.
“That run [25-9 record] was so long … and that is sustainable,’’ Rasmussen said. “That is who we are, right? It’s not like we got hot for 10 days. We did it for six or eight weeks. So that team is [still] in here.
“I think we played pretty stereotypical Rays baseball. We pitched the ball really well. One through nine, we made some really good defensive plays. And we had some big hits when we needed them. In my five years here, that’s what has been successful -- key hits, key moments, play really good defense and pitch the ball really well.’’
Rasmussen pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings -- allowing just four singles, walking none and striking out six -- before being lifted in the sixth inning with a 3-0 lead, one man on and one out. Left-hander Garrett Cleavinger immediately got in trouble by allowing first-pitch bullet singles to Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman to load the bases, but he coaxed Teoscar Hernández into an inning-ending double play.
From there, the Rays’ bullpen was lights-out. Edwin Uceta worked two perfect innings. When closer Pete Fairbanks struck out the side in the ninth -- Ohtani, Freeman and Hernández -- the Rays had locked down an extremely well-played game.
Only six hits allowed to the Dodgers (all singles). No walks. No errors.
“That was impressive,’’ manager Kevin Cash said.
The Rays (55-57) still face an uphill climb, but Saturday’s game provided a reminder of the team’s most successful winning formula.
Coming into the game, Cash had said the Rays were finding it difficult to overcome any sort of adversity. But this time, they enjoyed prosperity. After Rasmussen got the Dodgers 1-2-3 to start, Díaz lifted the fifth pitch by ex-Ray Blake Snell onto the hitter-friendly right-field porch, a Statcast-projected 326 feet away.
There was only one MLB park where that would’ve been a homer -- Steinbrenner Field.
“It’s still a home run and still an RBI,’’ Díaz said with a smile through team interpreter Eddie Rodriguez.
In the third, Díaz did it again with a 341-foot two-run shot to right for his 20th homer of the season, providing a 3-0 advantage.
“The first homer to Yandy, that was not a good pitch, I thought, to him,’’ said Snell, who returned from the injured list (shoulder inflammation) and started for the first time since April 2. “On the second homer, I thought that was a really good pitch to him, and it was. Just a good result for him. I mean, Yandy won the game. Yandy did good.”
“We have a good friendship,’’ Díaz said. “He's a little bit mad at me right now, but he’ll be fine.’’
After Díaz’s two homers, the Rays were more than fine.
“Three-nothing [lead] is big,’’ Cash said. “We know Blake is really, really tough. But he’s coming off rehab, so we knew it was important to get some early runs.’’
“Our mentality was to attack early,’’ said Díaz, who collected his 900th career hit and made a pair of excellent defensive plays at first base. “Thank God things went well for us today, especially with the way we’ve been playing.’’
Junior Caminero padded the lead with a sixth-inning solo homer, his 28th of the season, off reliever Jack Dreyer.
The work of Uceta and Fairbanks made it academic.
“In my opinion, that’s the best way to win a baseball game -- you don’t let the other team score, you score some runs, then everybody goes home happy,’’ Fairbanks said. “We’d like to build on it. And I feel like I’ve said that numerous times after wins and we haven’t been able to build on it.
“We got some big hits today and we had as dominant a starter [Rasmussen] as you can find. We’ve got a super talented arm [Joe Boyle] going [Sunday]. We need to have good at-bats and pair that with good pitching. That’s a good recipe. We’d like to repeat it and hopefully we do repeat it.’’