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Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said he felt his pitchers had been too conservative until now in the World Series. Luckily for the Rays, it’ll be Blake Snell, his ace, on the mound on Tuesday.
By David Waldstein
The Tampa Bay Rays, with the third lowest payroll in major league baseball this year, have many players who are not known. How many other people outside Tampa can see Brandon Lowe walking down a street or opting for Joey Wendle at the mall?
So it would probably be desirable for a relief pitcher named Ryan Thompson, who is largely unknown even in world baseball before fitting in to a rookie at 28 this year, to give the club’s opening speech on Monday.
Thompson said that when the Rays faced off for their first spring training in February, they were hoping to win the World Series, and now, despite the chance of being eliminated at Game 6 on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, that popularity remains valid.
“And to go even further, ” he said, “we hope to win this. We can win the next two games and we will. “
So, no, despite a three-game deficit against two against one of baseball’s most talented and beloved teams, the Rays have lost none of their confidence or stamina. They have been described as annoying little puppies who refuse to leave, or as mosquitoes, humming around the heads of the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers.
But survival, at this point, will require more than perseverance. Rays manager Kevin Cash promised that the team’s launch strategy for Game 6 would be much more competitive than it had been before, as it asks biting mosquitoes to behave more like fatal hornets.
“We didn’t do ourselves any favors just by saying, “Attack, attack, attack,” Cash said from the team hotel on Monday. He added: “Tomorrow we’re going to be competitive. “
In too many openings in Tampa Bay, Cash lamented, his pitchers allowed Dodgers patient hitters to score favorable scores: movements were followed through balls, then a strike and then a ball, allowing hitters to read about more and more shots: their location. , movement and speed, and deploy that data to subsequent bats.
Cash will ask 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to replace that trend when he takes the ball to start Game 6 at Globe Life Field, the Texas Rangers baseball stadium that serves as an impartial for the series.
“I’d say we wouldn’t need more on the mound than he did,” said Austin Meadows, the Rays’ right-back and designated hitter.
The Rays are not in uncharted territory as they have won two playoff games; they beat the Yankees in the fifth game of their departmental series and then beat the Astros in the seventh game of the American League Championship Series, either in San Diego. Rays have a convenience of knowing they can take over the pressure. However, this would possibly not apply to the coach itself.
“Probably so much, ” said Cash, “because I’ll be pretty stressed. “
It’s a fair admission for a manager who thinks that, despite early predictions of a simple los Angeles victory, the Rays may have played even better in the series and yet remain only a win after tying up and forcing a game. 7. , with his ace on the mound.
Part of the problem, Cash noted, is that the Rays seem to play most of the time. They took the first advantage of a game only once in the series, in Game 2, in the first 3 innings of Game 3, four and 5, the Dodgers outperformed the Rays 8-2, limiting the Rays’ ability to fulfill their original game plan.
“That hasn’t happened yet because they’re up 1, 2 or 3 in nothing at the moment or in the third round every night, apparently,” Cash said.
But in Game 1, which won Los Angeles, 8-3, Snell sat on the bench and observed how vital it was to attack the Dodgers in the strike zone, make them swing and miss the moves because they were not chasing balls.
Snell implemented classes one in Game 2, a 6-4-ray win, and will now check the same in Game 6.
Cash said he had a clever concept of the team’s attitude, based on some positive reviews he had heard at the clubhouse after the defeat of the fifth game. Outdoor activities on Monday consisted of sitting outside near the fireplaces on the terrace in a hotel lounge, where Cash predicted that conversations would focus on baseball.
Thompson, the rookie pitcher, said the Rays players had a genuine fraternity that would serve them well as they faced their challenging task on Tuesday. His camaraderie, he said, is a component of his good fortune as much as any tactical facet of the game. it would possibly be difficult to quantify it.
“We are the most productive friends on the field, off the field, and that’s how we win games,” he said. “We don’t pass out and we get 20 home runs per game, and we are not the strongest. A team that feeds on others. We are a team that has that power in the clubhouse before the game, we hug each other on the court. it’s who we are. It’s our hobby that makes us so good. “
Of course, it’s also helping to attack, attack, attack.
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