{"id":45217,"date":"2025-05-22T02:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T02:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/45217\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T02:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T02:53:12","slug":"rays-show-a-lot-in-winning-2nd-straight-but-its-time-for-more-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/45217\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays show a lot in winning 2nd straight, but it\u2019s time for more"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA \u2014 Any momentum from Tuesday night\u2019s walkoff win<\/a> seemed long gone when Taj Bradley began Wednesday\u2019s matinee by hitting the first Astros batter and allowing a homer to the second.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably started as bad as it could,\u201d Rays manager Kevin Cash said.<\/p>\n

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But Bradley quickly found a groove. His mates got the two runs back, then flexed their muscles with Curtis Mead, Josh Lowe, Brandon Lowe and Yandy Diaz combining for a season high-matching four homers. They played some dazzling defense. Cash got extremely irate (which may be a polite description) at the umpires, eventually ejected and potentially suspended.<\/p>\n

And by the end of the sweltering afternoon, the Rays grasped an 8-4 victory and something they haven\u2019t had much lately: a winning streak (and at Steinbrenner Field!)<\/p>\n

Two straight doesn\u2019t seem like much, but it\u2019s the best the Rays (23-26) have done over the last 3 \u00bd weeks.<\/p>\n

And if they\u2019re a better team than they\u2019ve shown \u2014 as they claim \u2014 maybe they can keep rolling.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve kind of struggled to fully get going,\u201d Mead said, \u201cand a couple wins like (Wednesday) and (Tuesday) night, hopefully we can build off that and take it into this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is something to how they are winning in coming from behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to keep being resilient,\u201d said Josh Lowe. \u201cWe\u2019re never out of ballgames. Like we\u2019ve seen, this lineup can spark some runs like that quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday night it was late-inning dramatics, getting even in the eighth and winning in the ninth on Taylor Walls sac fly.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, arguably it was the two-run response in the bottom of the first<\/a> off Hunter Brown to tie the Astros that mattered most.<\/p>\n

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Diaz led off with a single, then made a small play that had a huge impact, hustling to second on Josh Lowe\u2019s flyout, which put him in position to score on Jonathan Aranda\u2019s two-out single \u2014 and led to an error allowing Aranda to reach second, and then later score on Chandler Simpson<\/a>\u2018s single.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig time, heads-up baseball play by Yandy right there,\u201d Cash said. \u201cJust not taking anything for granted. That extra 90 feet matters. We were able to capitalize with a base hit, and then followed with another one when Jonny was at second base. We all high-fived Yandy for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley, who walked the third batter in the first and needed a double play to escape further trouble, took the 2-2 score as a reset and ran with it, allowing only two more hits and working six strong innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had my back coming in to the bottom of the first and just tying the game back up,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to keep fighting no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

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His teammates seemed to have the same attitude.<\/p>\n

Mead, who found out at 10:30 a.m. he was starting with Walls experiencing groin soreness, gave them the lead with the first homer of his frustrating season \u2014 a two-out shot in the fourth off Brown, who came in as one of the league\u2019s best starters \u2014 and made several good plays.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Mead) had a heck of a ballgame for a guy that wasn\u2019t coming to the ballpark thinking he was starting,\u201d Cash said. \u201c(Bench coach Rodney Linares) made a joke after the home run that maybe anytime he plays, we just shouldn\u2019t tell him.\u201d<\/p>\n

One flaw of the Rays offense has been the inability to add on runs. Wednesday they did, and it proved to be important.<\/p>\n

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Josh Lowe hit Brown\u2019s first pitch of the fifth for a 410-foot homer to center, and Brandon Lowe hit the next 347 feet to right-center to make it 5-2.<\/p>\n

In Game 49, that somehow was the first time any Rays players hit back-to-back homers this season.<\/p>\n

And more special to the two players whose names are spelled the same but pronounced differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that might be the he first time that\u2019s ever happened to us,\u201d Brandon Lowe said.<\/p>\n

But two Houston homers off reliever Edwin Uceta, the second by ex-Ray Isaac Paredes, who also went deep in the first, cut that gap to 5-4.<\/p>\n

The Rays added on again, with Diaz hitting a 435-foot, three-run blast to center, and patting his bulging right bicep when talking about it later.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s what good teams do,\u201d Josh Lowe said. \u201cThat\u2019s how you win ballgames. You score early, you don\u2019t go quiet there, you score again, and you keep scoring more runs. I think arguably the biggest swing of the day was probably Yandy\u2019s homer there. That kind of was the dagger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the Rays played one of their more interesting and entertaining games, which included the histrionics from Cash protesting an eighth-inning call on whether Houston\u2019s Yainer Diaz struck out or was hit by a pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could have heard everything he was saying. I haven\u2019t seen him that fired up,\u201d Josh Lowe said. \u201cHe was pretty angry (Tuesday) during the check swing during my at-bat \u2014 rightfully so.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he got after it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In different ways, all the Rays did.<\/p>\n

Now we\u2019ll see if they can do it again Friday.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

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