Rays bats come alive after Twins pitcher has hands checked, complete sweep
ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays made it a clean sweep Thursday.
After Twins starter Bailey Ober was told by umpires to wash a black substance off his pitching hand, the Rays quickly solved the right-hander. They used their power and speed to beat the Twins 4-2, completing the three-game sweep in front of 12,584 at Tropicana Field.
The Rays (46-19) won their sixth straight and became only the fourth team in the wild-card era (since 1995) to win at least 46 of their first 65 games in a season, joining the 1998 and 2022 Yankees, and the 2001 Mariners.
The Twins (31-32) have lost five in a row.
Harold Ramirez homered, his ninth of the season. Luke Raley hit his second career triple — his first was Tuesday and came on a similar ball that rattled around the rightfield corner. Wander Franco had his 11-game hitting streak snapped but stole his 22nd base.
Yonny Chirinos went 5⅔ innings in a spot start, allowing just one run, and Jason Adam picked up his 10th save, bouncing back from his fourth blown save on Wednesday.
As he walked out to take the mound for the bottom of the fourth, Bailey was stopped by third-base umpire C.B. Bucknor, who asked him to return to the dugout and clean his hands.
“There was just an issue of some residue on his pitching hand, and it wasn’t sticky,” umpire crew chief Jeff Nelson said. “So out of an abundance of caution, we directed the pitcher to clean it up.”
The Rays said they did not request the check and were not aware of what happened until plate umpire Chris Segal told them after the inning. They were aware, however, that Ober had been nasty before the incident.
Tampa Bay did not have a hit over the first three innings. Ober struck out the last six hitters he faced before cleaning his hands.
But there was a difference after the check, which Ober said rattled him.
“I had too much sweat on my hands, and I use the rosin when I’m out on the field, so (Bucknor) thought it was too much and (he) told me just go back in there and wash my hands,” Ober said. “It got in my head a little bit that I didn’t feel safe out there. Like, you never know if he checks me again and he’s a little ticked off that he can toss me. It was a little hard finishing out that game, but even after that I got the first two guys out in that inning.”
Raley tripled in the first run, and Ramirez hammered an 80 mph slider 416 feet to dead centerfield for two more.
“I didn’t know he had been checked,” Ramirez said. “We made some adjustments, but it was definitely a different slider he threw me (in the fourth inning) than the first (at-bat) This time, it was right in the middle.”
Ober went just 1⅔ after that. He finished with a season-high seven strikeouts over 5⅓ innings but took his third loss, allowing four runs, three earned.
Franco reached on a fielder’s choice in the sixth and moved to second on a Randy Arozarena walk. With Raley at the plate and a 1-1 count, Franco took off. Twins reliever Griffin Jax stepped off the rubber and threw wildly to third, allowing Franco to score easily.
“Looked like a good opportunity to go,” Franco said via team interpreter Manny Navarro. “I looked and he’d only taken one look to second base, so I took advantage of that opportunity and took off.”
Franco’s 22 stolen bases are third most in the majors, behind Oakland’s Esteury Ruiz (29) and Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna (28).
“Well, I mean, (Franco) is fast. Sometimes he can outrun the third baseman getting to the bag,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Looked like he kind of committed and just kept going. With — I believe Raley was at the plate at the time — that third baseman was pushed way over to the shortstop side. So it’s a tough play, and it played in our favor.”
Carlos Correa led off the fourth with a home run that cleared the left-centerfield concourse. The 407-foot blast was his first since May 13 and gave the Twins their only lead of the series.
It was the only run Chirinos, called up from Triple-A Durham on Thursday morning, allowed. Colin Poche gave up a solo home run to the Twins’ Michael A. Taylor in the eighth.
“He did a nice job,” Cash said of Chirinos. “Happy for Yonny. Threw strikes, executed pitches, got a couple more swings and misses than maybe the last time, so encouraged by his overall outing.”
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