The Rays tossed nine no-hit innings against the Red Sox today, but while the no-no was erased during a wild tenth inning, Kevin Kiermaier’s walkoff homer gave Tampa a 3-2 victory. Six different Rays pitchers combined to hold Red Sox batters without a hit or a run over the game’s first nine innings, yet the Tampa Bay lineup was also shut out (on two hits) against Boston pitching. The Sox finally broke out for two hits and two runs in the top of the 10th, yet the Rays roared back in the bottom half of the inning for what might already be the most unusual win of their season.
This is the 15th time in Major League history that a would-be no-hitter wasn’t broken up until extra innings, and only the second time that such a game was tossed by more than one pitcher. Matt Garza’s gem on July 26, 2010 remains the only no-hitter in Rays franchise history. Tampa has been on the wrong end of no-hit games on five occasions, with three of those five being perfect games (from Mark Buehrle, Dallas Braden, and Felix Hernandez).
Some more notes from St. Pete…
- Seiya Suzuki was known to be on the Rays’ target list during the offseason, and the club was apparently prepared to make a big investment. Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that the Rays’ offer to Suzuki was “close” to the five-year, $85MM deal the outfielder eventually landed from the Cubs. Between this push for Suzuki and the Rays’ even more surprising interest in Freddie Freeman this past winter, it could hint that Tampa Bay is prepared to be more financially aggressive than usual in its pursuit of a World Series, which might set the stage for some interesting trade possibilities as the deadline approaches. It also seems like the Rays were onto something with Suzuki, given how he has been on fire for the first two weeks of his Major League career.
- Ryan Yarbrough is set to throw a rehab start at Triple-A today, Rays manager Kevin Cash told The Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin and other reporters. If all goes well, it could line Yarbrough up to be activated from the 10-day injured list in time to start the Rays’ game with the Mariners on Thursday. Yarbrough has yet to pitch this season due to a groin injury. Working as a reliever, opener, bulk pitcher, and traditional starter over his four MLB seasons, Yarbrough has a 4.30 ERA over 499 2/3 career innings with Tampa.
no-hitter though nine ends 3-2 in the 10th. why are these fake runs so good anyways?
Harvey Haddix holds the trump card for no hitter’s and/or perfect games being lost in extra innings. Always and forever with these new rules especially.
darkside – Rays never would have won if Story hadn’t choked on that throw in the 10th.
Just think … Bloom believes Suzuki isn’t worth $90M, but he also believes Story is worth $140M.
Sure it’s too early to pass final judgement on the two players, but as of right now it’s looking like Bloom signed the wrong player.
FPG – What do you expect, Story’s second position is 3B!!!! hahaha Too bad he’ll never get to play it. Too bad for the pitchers that is.
The Red Sox needed an OF after Bloom’s Renfroe mishap. Suzuki would have been a great addition to get Kiki out of CF and the lead-off spot. That’s probably why it didn’t happen. Cora probably told Bloom to get someone who won’t upset his two favorites at 3B and CF. So Bloom got a SS who is an excellent 3B where we need help the most and they play him at 2B and passed (under bid) on the guy that displaces Kiki in CF. It makes perfect sense to me considering the people involved in the decision.
We threw away so much money on bad players that we could have afforded a big contract for Starling Marte to play CF and lead off too. I miss the days when the GM brings in players that meet needs. Having two DHs triggers a need for a third DH? Schwarber is only a good choice as a DH. Having an all-star SS and another one coming triggers a need for yet another SS? At least Bloom finally confirmed he didn’t want Bogaerts after this year. Too bad nobody told Cora to help the team and play Story at 3B.
It’s not going to get better until they are gone. FYI… I went to the Target the other day to find a mobile planning book to chart the Red Sox future until they win another ring and I couldn’t find one with that many years in it!!! hahaha
So I am watching today’s game and I see a routine two hopper to the left of the butcher. It hits him in the glove like it should but he doesn’t catch it. NO ERROR!!! This is exactly why I have to count misplays not errors. The Red Sox have a deal with the score keepers to minimize Devers’ errors so they can justify doing the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen an organization do with a totally worthless defensive player.
I now have a way to track his miscues not just his errors. When you look in the play by play it is an infield hit to 3B. I’m going to count at year end all the miscues then add them to his errors. I’m also going back 5 years to see if my estimate of 48 miscues a year is conservative or an over statement. I’m betting on conservative. So that moves his errors from 1 every 5 games to miscues 1 out of every 3 games in his career!!!
Changing subjects, I believe the hitters are on the verge of catching up with the pitchers after having such a short Spring Training so look out in the next few weeks. I think ERAs and WHIPs will be shooting up and some of the struggling stars will start heading to their normal stat levels quickly.
A Toronto sweep would put the Red Sox 7 game back by April 29. Not too different than 2019!! Good thing Baltimore is next and it’s in Baltimore where some of the guys hit better than in Fenway!!
KD = Great post as always!
Yes stats can be very deceiving, which is why it’s necessary to actually WATCH THE DAMN GAMES.
Looking at Hansel’s zero earned runs from Saturday’s box score, one would think he pitched well. When in actuality, he pitched like crap.
In the words of the legendary Flavor Flav …. Don’t believe the hype!
FPG – Maybe Bloom was willing to pay, but Suzuki would not come! Story took a smaller offer from Boston than what the Rockies offered! Yes, it does happen, players will take less to play where they want to play.
JC – My understanding is Suzuki would have come to Boston if the money was comparable. Don’t expect anyone with the Red Sox to officially go on record with that, though.
2007 John Henry would have gotten a deal done.
*SARASOTA SEA HORSES
I bet you play for the Dallas Dingleberries
And the Rays only had two hits until the tenth. Really unbelievable game all around.
What the heck, let’s really do a combined no-hitter. Have 27 different pitchers each record an out.
I mean, obviously MLB rules don’t allow that.
Theoretically yeah they can with two intentional walks and using position pitchers.
3 batter minimum
Well, I guess they could have each of the first two pitchers each inning intentionally walk two batters… then the third could just get an out since the rule doesn’t apply when an inning ends if I’m not mistaken.
But that would be giving up a run each inning, so the offense would need to score at least 10 runs.
On top of that it would have to be after September call ups… or using the extra man during a double header?
They are using 28 man rosters now brainiacs.
You gotta have a catcher man.
And theoretically some other defenders.
There’s that little thing called Rule 7.03b.
While i hate the outcome of the game, it was one of the best pitched games i think we’ve seen in years
Classy reply
Rays: One name to get you over the hump – Joey Gallo – imagine it, live it, love it, own it. Call us, please.
Somehow the Rays would find a way to make Gallo a batting title winner and MVP candidate
Yep, I’m confident you are correct, sir. By the end he would probably pitch to a sub-3 ERA as well…
Rays have their own albatross in Mike Zunnino….Let’s see if he wins a batting title first lmao
Zunino has been a valuable player despite his poor batting average, similar to Gallo.
Love when you guys write articles that give updates about games. You should do it more. I am so thankful that I have this site to get baseball news and have very professional authors writing them. Bravo
I mean, I was still watching the game since I couldn’t start it on time when I had the ending ruined for me because I wanted to check some trade rumors… so I’m not in love with that. But I think that’s the first time that’s happened to me in the 5+ years I’ve been using this site… so yeah. It’s awesome. Thanks guys.
The Rays didn’t really roar back. The Red Sox made an error on a play that should have ended the game. The Rays 3 runs were all unearned as a result of the error. Tough loss for the Red Sox. The Rays get credit for taking advantage of the blunder.
The story was Story. He won it for them last night with his D and ironically lost it tonight with his D. Baseball… crazy game.
Well said, go4two.
I hate the outcome of the game as a Red Sox fan but the game also has me optimistic. We can move Whitlock into the starting rotation and when Sale is back it will be 5 strong. Sale, Evoladi, Houck, Whitlock, and Pivetta is a very nice core starting 5 with Wacha and Hill added for depth. If Paxton is himself next year then this team will be deep in the starting rotation, team is deep anyway. I know Robles got knocked around tonight but this was the first time in a long time going back to last year. If Robles, Barnes, and Diekman hold down the back end and the continued growth of Houck and Whitlock I’m excited. Offensively I want to see Cassas come up, Dalbec is too much of a liability he strikes out like Gallo without the walks. Honestly, don’t understand why we kept Travis Shaw, let the youngster get some ABs. JBJ is doing better than last year so far, but he was really awful last year and I don’t think he’s a better option than Duran really. Really though if those are my complaints I think as long as the pitching holds this team will win over 90. I’ve been surprisingly pleased with the pitching so far.
B I N G O
Chaim and his staff are building the Red Sox around pitching.
The scouts have been / are looking for good candidates to coach up and the coaches are doing their part.
They’ll also slowly improve the defense over the next 2 years to support the pitching.
P.S. As the Rays did last year with Wacha and Archer; Wacha and Hill were brought in to hold the fort till later in the year when the pitching reinforcements come in.
Samuel – Only Paxton was expected to start the season on the IL.
Sale wasn’t expected to be a late season reinforcement again.
So a seven inning game in which the pitcher gives up no hits isn’t considered a no hitter? And a nine inning game where the pitcher(s) don’t give up a hit isn’t considered a no hitter. Got it. Lol
Game didn’t end with no hits. So it’s not a no hitter. Blame the offense for not scoring a run for it not being a no hitter. Both sides need to do their part. Have been many games where people go 7 no hits but that’s not the whole game. No reason to give a discount to those pitching in a double header.
“…seems like the Rays were onto something with Suzuki, given how he has been on fire”
Er…anyone with half a brain understood what Suzuki could do. I have watched him here in Hiroshima for years and knew that his combination of patience (he had more walks than Ks last year!) and power — plus speed and great gold glove d and strong arm — made him one of the top guys out there. It is the usual bias that had some fools “surprised” about what Suzuki could do in MLB. Congrats to Cubs for UNDERPAYING Suzuki and locking him up for 5 years.
Most of us don’t live in Hiroshima and haven’t watched him for years so your comment comes off as pretty tone deaf. Most people would have no basis to have much of an opinion of him one way or the other and the simple fact is many Japanese hitters have greatly underwhelmed in MLB, so there will naturally be skepticism about how any individual player’s results from NPB will translate over here.
Besides, let’s see Suzuki do it for more than two weeks before declaring the Cubs have already underpaid for five years.
Reading the comments it seems like everyone has concluded the pitching is awesome yet not many have pointed out how incredibly bad the hitting for both teams is after a dozen or so games.
Did Bloom beef up the pitching with Wacha, Paxton and Hill? It may appear that way right now because the hitters are behind the pitchers due to the short Spring Training but when the hitters catch up, I think you will have a different opinion.
In two weeks, I believe the hitting will have caught up with the pitching and all the insanely low ERAs and WHIPs will start coming back to reality and guys without talent like Wacha, Paxton and Hill will see their numbers sky rocket. Lucky for Paxton his injury will preclude him from the ordeal. The good news is many of the sub .250 hitters will start climbing to their norms. Of course guys like Kiki and JBJ will still be heading to a sub .250 range to match their career numbers but Story should finish the year much, much closer to .300 than he is now. Also, keep your fingers crossed that Devers doesn’t go into one of his famous cold streaks following his season beginning hot streak.
I’m thankful we have JD and Bogey who tend to fluctuate less than everyone else. That’s why we need them hitting behind Story and Devers at the top of the order. And Verdugo needs to start driving in more runs in the 5th hole while Dalbec is cold. Then, when they flip flop their streaks, flip flop them in the order. Put JBJ 9th since he’s out hitting Kiki so Story can get some RBIs in the one hole. With Cora missing, the batting order could be fixed and the defense could be improved by moving Devers to DH since he hasn’t made an error yet so he is over due to make 3!!
“… the club was apparently prepared to make a big investment.”
Being *prepared* to make a big investment means they didn’t, hence he’s not on the Rays. Neither is Freeman. Nice spin out of Tampa.
They made big offers to both; didnt land them. It’s just showing that they were willing to spend money, which is not the norm usually for them.
“It also seems like the Rays were onto something with Suzuki”
So were at least four other teams who put in bids, according to your own reporting:
“Suzuki has reportedly drawn interest from upwards of a dozen teams this winter, and Jon Heyman of the MLB Network lists five (via Twitter) that have been prominent players: the Mariners, Giants, Dodgers, Cubs and Red Sox. That’s not necessarily a group of finalists, to be clear, but it seems those teams are among Suzuki’s top suitors.
“Four of those clubs — Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston — have been known entrants in the bidding for some time.”
I thought for sure the Rays were going to toss a no hitter but lose 1-0 in 10 innings because of the whole start a runner on second thing.