The entire weekend has been an emotional rollercoaster for the team as well as the fanbase. Tampa Bay went into Friday down two games to one after Cleveland’s pitchers neutralized the big three bats. The miserable weather matched the emotions of many fans, but the sun came out figurately as well as literally on Saturday as the weather as well as the Rays’ offense broke through to even the series. Tonight, the game was all about who would have the leg up in the series as it heads back to St. Petersburg on Monday.
Kevin Cash gave the ball to Drew Rasmussen asking him to have both a short memory and keep the offense in the game as long as possible. Game 5 was everything the first game was not as Rasmussen was extremely pitch efficient leveraging the count advantage while scattering four singles and a lone walk over seven frames. Rasmussen mostly pitched in cruise control until the final two frames.
The first bit of adversity came with consecutive singles by Steven Kwan and Jose Ramirez to set up first and third with one out. Chase DeLauter would drive in Cleveland’s first run on a groundout before Rasmussen got Adell to pop up an outside cutter for the third out. The 7th inning was more stressful with Nathaniel Lowe leading off with a well-struck single to the opposite field. In a regular season game, Cash would have likely had a reliever warming and would have come out to get Rasmussen after the first runner reached. This was no ordinary game. Rasmussen would go on to induce another popout, setting the stage for a repeat of a Game 1 key moment.
Cash stuck with Rasmussen in Game 1 to lead off the 7th and Patrick Bailey made him pay for the move jumping all over a first pitch cutter to tie the game. Now, Bailey came to the plate with a runner on in a two-run deficit and Rasmussen altered his approach using all fastballs and changeups to induce an inning-ending double play:
This was an outstanding example of a player taking a previous failure of execution and quickly learning from it. Junior Caminero had that moment in Game 4, and this plate appearance was Rasmussen’s moment in what would be his final batter of the evening. Rasmussen discussed this in the post-game broadcast team stating that they were planning on working Bailey up and down in the moment to get the double play and not chance things ripping another cutter.
As good as Rasmussen was tonight, the defense was even better. As play-by-play person Brian Anderson said on the broadcast, “The Rays are just showing off now.”
Those defensive plays allowed the three early runs the Rays scored stand as the offense was shut down over the final six innings. The first inning saw seven Rays come to the plate as the lineup forced Parker Messick to throw 31 pitches despite just a single run scoring on a bases-loaded walk to Johnny DeLuca. The second inning was another stressor on Messick, who once again got out of the mess with just a single run but it also ended his evening prematurely. Tim Herrin did not have it much easier allowing three hits and a run in the third, but that would be the end of the offense on the evening as the club would have four hits after the third inning and a runner thrown out at home as Steven Kwan nailed Taylor Walls at home in the 4th inning:
The Rays’ A pen was only asked to get six outs, and they got the job done. The most impressive plate appearance was when Tyler Wells was asked to come in and face Jose Ramirez with a runner on and struck out the future hall of famer:
Bryan Baker came in for the 9th inning despite the noticeable velocity dip in Game 4, and got the job done on 14 pitches. Baker threw just four fastballs in that bunch, but each one came with more velocity after the second one and he topped out at 94.8 MPH.
This was a team effort, but make no mistake, the staff ace is the man of the hour in this Game 5 win. It was enjoyable to watch Rasmussen immediately apply the lessons learned from the Game 1 mistakes to demoralize the Cleveland offense. The club now flies home with two shots in front of the home crowd looking much different than the team the fanbase saw in the earlier games of this series.