TAMPA — The Rays are rolling — in every way imaginable. And all of those positives were on display Sunday during a 13-0 romp against the Blue Jays at Steinbrenner Field, which completed a three-game sweep and an overall five-game winning streak. The Rays (26-26) have reached the .500 mark for the first time since April 27.
Right-hander Ryan Pepiot (3-5) was efficiently dominating, matching a career high by going seven innings (91 pitches), while allowing just three hits and four baserunners (none in scoring position).
Pepiot, who walked one and struck out five, retired 15 of his last 16 batters (a fifth-inning pop-up by Ali Sánchez was scored a single after it was lost in the sun). Pepiot received excellent support from his defense, which turned in four highlight-reel plays.
And this time, there was run support. Was there ever.
Pepiot, who had been backed by just 15 runs in his previous 10 starts this season, could breathe much easier. The Rays had 15 hits and broke it open with a seven-run fifth, a half-inning that lasted 27 minutes, in which the first nine batters reached base before the Jays recorded an out.
“Honestly, I think I looked up at one point [in the fifth] and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, there's no outs,’" said second baseman Brandon Lowe (3-for-4), who staked the Rays to a 2-0 first-inning lead on his 10th home run, a 407-foot shot to center field. “It’s one of those things when things are going well, so you don't focus on anything else other than you know what's going on in the moment."
Right fielder Josh Lowe led off the fifth with a single. By the time he came up again in the inning, the Rays had scored seven runs. And after two pitching changes, there were still no outs.
“That was a long inning," Josh Lowe said. “You can only imagine how they [Jays] felt playing defense through that one. But to come back up with nobody out, that’s good work by us offensively. I think our goal for these day games is whoever is not on the field the longest is probably going to win the game. We did a good job of adding on."
There wasn’t a defining fifth-inning hit by the Rays, just a lot of slicing and dicing, using every inch of the field and staying patient at the plate. It started coming apart for the Jays when Junior Caminero collected a high-arching RBI double that dropped just inside the right-field line, eluding George Springer, who battled a difficult sun field all afternoon. With the infield in, Brandon Lowe slid under the tag attempt of Sánchez, who got a quick throw from second baseman Ernie Clement on Jonathan Aranda’s bouncer, making it 4-0.
With each at-bat, the Rays could do no wrong. And the hole kept getting deeper for the Jays.
“We put a lot of pressure on a really good pitcher [Chris Bassitt]," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “That was as good as we’ve played all season long. I mean, we’ve won a handful of games kind of the way we’re built with run prevention and good pitching, playing really good defense and getting some timely hits. But today, the offense really took over and separated the game to give us some breathing room."
It was a welcome change for Pepiot, who kept himself fresh during the long half-inning by sitting in the cool tunnel and occasionally refining his motion with some warmup balls.
“When the guys put up runs like that, you want to put up a quick zero and get them back out there on the batting side to go do it all over again," Pepiot said. “It’s very fun to pitch with a lead, just go out there and attack the zone, not nibble as much. Just make them put the ball in play. And our guys are making the plays behind me."
Cash said he was impressed by Pepiot’s effort.
“He has been trending in a really good direction lately," Cash said. “When he needs to make a pitch or get himself back in the count, it seems pretty seamless to do that. He had everything going [well] today."
For Pepiot and the Rays, who had slipped to five games below .500 on May 8, the best could be yet to come.
“We’re seeing some results fall our way," Pepiot said. “We’re just trusting the process that over the full course of 162 [games], the results will yield themselves, then we’ll come out on top and be ready to play October baseball."