NEW YORK -- The Rays continue to surge up the American League standings. They shut out the Mets, 9-0, at Citi Field on Sunday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep and have won 18 of their last 24 games, which is the best record in baseball dating back to May 20.
The Rays are playing so well that they are moving closer to the Yankees, who were swept by the Red Sox this weekend. Tampa Bay is now 3 1/2 games behind the Yanks in the American League East standings.
“The [Yankees] are on top of our division, so the rivalry is there,” said Jonathan Aranda through interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. “We are coming to get that No. 1 spot.”
Said Rays manager Kevin Cash: “The Yankees are a very good team, but we have to control what we can and that’s kind of staying series to series. We did a good job of resetting after the Red Sox series to come to [Citi Field] after the off-day and play well. Now we have to go home and do that in the Orioles series.”
The Mets had the best record in the Major Leagues entering Friday’s action, but the Rays showed them they can do it all on the baseball field.
“We are playing good baseball. I’m very encouraged by the way we played -- offense, defense and pitching,” Cash said. “To do that against this quality Mets team, everything has to go right like it did for the most part.”
The Rays’ bullpen was overused in the last seven days, so the team needed right-hander Shane Baz to pitch deep into the game. He ended up having one of his best outings of the season, tossing 6 2/3 innings without allowing a run and striking out six batters.
Baz was breezing through the first two innings, but found himself in trouble in the third. The Mets had the bases loaded with two outs and Pete Alonso at the plate. Alonso was ahead in the count, 3-1, but Baz relied on his four-seam fastball and ended up striking out Alonso to end the threat. The last pitch Baz threw to Alonso that inning was clocked at 99.2 mph.
“Obviously, I put myself in a bad spot there by walking guys,” Baz said. “The guys came out to talk to me and reiterate what the game plan was and just give me a little break to collect myself. I was able to get a couple of fastballs by Alonso and get out of the inning.
“Alonso is a great hitter. He hits mistakes really well. You don’t have to have good stuff. You have to put it in the right spots. I was going to let it all out there. I wasn't going to hold back or try to be too perfect. I was going to throw a fastball. It worked out.”
Baz’s outing fell on Father’s Day and he was thinking about his father, Raj. Shane never forgot all the things Raj did for him while growing up in Texas. Raj was not at Sunday’s game, but he will be in attendance in Tampa on Thursday when the Rays have Shane Baz Bobblehead Night. In fact, Shane was emotional when talking about his hero.
“He spent so many hours with me, whether it was baseball, football or basketball, anything really,” Shane said. “He was never too tired to play with me or do what I wanted. … It’s awesome. He was coaching my teams, taking me to the batting cages, getting me pitching lessons and stuff like that. You don’t understand it at the time, but the money that he spent on me was special.”
For the third day in a row, Tampa Bay’s offense frustrated Mets starters. This time it was right-hander Griffin Canning, who threw 33 pitches in the second inning and allowed three runs. Danny Jansen highlighted the scoring with an RBI single.
“We are having good at-bats. We are taking our walks and the guys are following with some big hits, putting some pressure on the defense,” Cash said. “Their pitcher today came in with really good numbers. So I’m really encouraged with how we drove the pitch count up on him. We were ready to hit.”
By the fifth inning, the Rays had a six-run lead. The biggest blow came from Aranda, who doubled down the right-field line against reliever Max Kranick, scoring Josh Lowe and Junior Caminero, who added a three-run homer in the ninth with his father watching from the stands.
In the series, Mets starters -- Canning, Tylor Megill and Clay Holmes -- had just a combined four 1-2-3 innings against the Rays and allowed 13 runs (10 earned) in 13 innings.
“I didn’t know [how good] the Mets were at home. I know they are a good club – obviously, important games,” Jansen said. “What we have been doing is one pitch, one inning at a time and pulling for each other. Offense has been great. The pitching staff has been keeping us in games. It has been fun.”