Rays 7, Twins 5: More Harrison Bader Heroics Not Enough to Overcome Bullpen's Inability to Field Position

Box Score:
Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K (97 Pitches, 68 Strikes, 70.1%)
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (20), Harrison Bader (10)
Bottom 3 WPA: Justin Topa (-.407), Griffin Jax (-.340), Royce Lewis (-.139)
Win Probability Chart (Via Fangraphs):

The Twins seem intent on delaying their time of death, winning in dramatic fashion against a good Rays team on back-to-back days to start this holiday weekend series. Despite all the losing and all the injuries, the team entered Sunday's game four games back of a Wild Card spot.

The one remaining consistently good pitcher the Twins can trot out every fifth day is Joe Ryan, and he took the ball hoping to deliver a sweep and (maybe) earn an All-Star nod for himself. He started strong, hitting 97 MPH with his fastball and striking out the side in the first.

Drew Rasmussen started for the Rays, and was immediately rocked by Byron Buxton pulverizing a cutter 414 feet to start the game off 1-0. Rasmussen is pretty good, and worked through the rest of the inning unscathed. He also had the luxury of emptying the tank early, as he was scheduled for just two innings of work to preserve his twice-surgically-repaired elbow ahead of the All-Star break.

The Rays are opportunists, and the light-hitting Taylor Walls got a split-change from Ryan in the second that hit the corner down and in, rather than down and away. Thus, the pitch floated right into Walls's bat path and traveled 368 feet to tie the game at one. Ryan said after the game that he liked the pitch call from Christian Vázquez, and accepted responsibility for the failure to execute.

The visitors struck again in the fourth.  After Jose Caballero blooped a single that landed on Trevor Larnach's foot, Jonathan Aranda got an 0-2 fastball that got a bit too much of the strike zone, and the breakout first baseman lashed it into the right-field corner to score Caballero. Ryan did settle down from there, striking out Josh Lowe on a brilliant little backdoor slider before getting Walls to pop out on the first pitch.

The bulk pitcher for the Rays was Joe Boyle, a reclamation project they acquired by trading one of their more successful reclamation projects in Jeffrey Springs. Boyle flashed good stuff, sitting 98-99 with the fastball and mixing in an effective split-change and slider. He pitched around a Buxton single and a Willi Castro walk in the third by striking out Larnach and Carlos Correa, before carving up Brooks Lee, Matt Wallner and Royce Lewis in the fourth, the latter two striking out haplessly.

Ryan showed some good poise in the sixth. He thought he had struck out Junior Caminero on a slider on the black, and was taking his customary strikeout stroll. He then realized the pitch was called a ball, and allowed a single on the next pitch. After starting the next hitter, Aranda, 2-0, Vazquez called for a chat to settle his pitcher down. But the umpire ruled that Ryan was attempting to start his delivery before Aranda made eye contact with him, so a pitch clock violation was called on Ryan. That made the count 3-0, but Ryan recovered to induce a pop-up, then retired Mangum to end his outing.

The Twins finally made some noise against Boyle in the sixth. Larnach squibbed a double down the left-field line, and Lee hit a sharp grounder off Caballero's glove. As the ball trickled away, Larnach tried to score and slid in just safe, confirmed after a Tampa Bay challenge.

The teams traded zeroes until the eighth, when Griffin Jax got into his usual trouble, allowing two seeing-eye singles to begin the inning before a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners. Caminero then hit a tapper in front of the mound that Vázquez tried to field and tag the pinch-runner, Christopher Morel, at home—too late. Aranda then hit a similar tapper that scooted past Jax's glove, because of course it did. In a hard, vessel-straining blink, it was 4-2 Rays.

But the Rays forgot that Harrison Bader was available off the bench. Hard-throwing lefty Mason Montgomery struck out Buxton to start the bottom of the eighth, but walked Castro. Bader came out hacking, missing a 99-MPH fastball to begin the at-bat, but on the third pitch, Montgomery left a slider to Bader's liking, and he demolished it just inside the left-field foul pole. Tie game.

Louis Varland and Pete Fairbanks pitched scoreless ninth innings to send us to the 10th. Justin Topa immediately allowed Tampa to take the lead once more, with Yandy Díaz lacing a liner to the wall in right-center. Caballero then bunted again, and it wasn't even a good bunt, but Topa still managed to field and throw the ball past Kody Clemens at first, allowing Caballero to reach third and, yes, score on a sacrifice fly the next at-bat. That made it 7-4 Rays.

The Twins would get the tying run to the plate in the bottom half, but Brooks Lee tapped out to end it.

Stray Observations:

-Christian Vázquez threw out two runners, the pretty fast Jake Mangum in the second, and the ultra-fast Chandler Simpson in the third. He's been really good of late against the running game.

-Boyle finished five innings with zero earned runs and seven strikeouts. Pretty good for Triple-A depth.

-Can we stop with the stat-washing of Griffin Jax (Glen Perkins actually tried to make an All-Star case for Jax at the start of his inning)? He has not been good this year, despite, yes, having good pitches and being a talented pitcher with great peripheral stats. His mental game is very poor, and has been since he entered the league. Remember 2023? The game plan has to be, put the ball in play, get him rattled, and pounce on the inevitable mistake. It's a winning formula until he proves it's not.

What’s Next: After an off day Monday, Simeon Woods Richardson (4-4, 4.41 ERA) will take on the Cubs' Shota Imanaga (5-2, 2.78 ERA) at Target Field. Imanaga has just returned to action after missing time with a hamstring strain, but has been a good find for the Cubs. Woods Richardson has been pretty good since his first start following his demotion against Texas, with a 1.71 ERA in his last four.

Postgame Interviews:

Bullpen Usage Chart: