Rays cruise behind 'full team effort'

DETROIT -- As Tampa Bay evened its series against the Tigers with a 7-2 victory on Saturday night, Brett Phillips left his post along the dugout rail and turned to face the crowd at Comerica Park.

His wave and enthusiastic arm pumps brought much of the section before him to its feet with an appreciative roar, and a contingent of fans behind the plate in Rays garb also rose to offer cheers in his direction.

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There was once a time when Tropicana Field carried nearly as many fans of the opposing team as it did the Rays. The gathering of fans in Detroit, 1,200 miles north of Tampa Bay’s home base, was as much a testament to the season the Rays are having as it was to the competitive organization they’ve worked to build.

“It was a full team effort,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We pitched well. We got big hits, timely hits, [put] pressure on the defense. ... I mean, [Kevin Kiermaier] running the bases the way he did, [Taylor Walls] picking up a bag, little things like that that added to the score or added to our runs really helped.”

Tampa Bay had a lot going for it early on, as just three-and-a-half innings into Saturday’s victory, Joey Wendle had already completed the most difficult part of a cycle and Chris Archer was twirling a no-hitter.

Though neither of the rare feats was accomplished, the fact that either was plausible was a strong testament to just how well the Rays’ season has gone.

Wendle blasted a one-out triple in the second inning to mark his opening salvo, then scored on Mike Zunino’s grounder to set the tone early. Zunino, who reached on a fielder’s choice when Detroit threw home to try to catch Wendle, scored on the next play when Kiermaier laced a triple into the left-center-field gap, making it 2-0.

The Rays added another run in the frame, on Brandon Lowe’s sac fly that scored Kiermaier, and two more in the fourth.

The first of those was thanks to Wendle’s 10th homer of the season, which he earned by parking a 2-2 changeup into the seats beyond right-center field.

"It's a long season,” Wendle said. “Kind of some ebbs and flows, and you like it when you're on the high end of those."

Archer, meanwhile, held Detroit hitless through his first three frames. The righty completed five innings on Sept. 4 for the first time since he landed on the IL on April 11 with right lateral forearm tightness, and he pronounced Friday that now that that threshold had been reached, he was “fully” in “compete mode.”

Archer registered just two strikeouts across his four innings Saturday, but he drew six swings and misses while keeping the Tigers out of the hit column for three innings as the Rays built a 5-0 lead.

Jonathan Schoop ended Archer’s no-hit bid with a leadoff double in the fourth. A one-out single by Miguel Cabrera scored the Tigers’ first run, but Archer stifled any potential momentum by ringing up Jeimer Candelario and coaxing Eric Haase into a groundout to end the threat. It marked the end of Archer’s night, though, after just 55 pitches.

The team later announced Archer had exited early with left hip discomfort and is day to day until further evaluation.

“It came on a little bit earlier in the game, and I was able to get through it, but I noticed it was affecting my pitches a little.” said Archer, who added he has had this issue for some time but has been able to pitch through it in the past. “I was leaving stuff up when I wasn't deliberately trying to, so from the team standpoint, I felt like [after four innings] I had reached my threshold as far as pain tolerance and capability.”

After two consecutive late-game blown leads, Tampa Bay’s bullpen returned to its usual form in Archer’s wake. Dietrich Enns earned his first MLB win, striking out six across four no-hit innings, before Shawn Armstrong slammed the door after a one-run ninth.

It’s a fitting reward for a team once notorious for its losses that has toiled quietly in the background over the years, built up its farm system and gotten players to buy into the Rays’ way as it has emerged into an American League powerhouse.

Tampa Bay began its franchise with 10 consecutive losing seasons, capped with a 66-win 2007. The Rays have 11 seasons of 80 or more wins in the 14 years since, and they are one win shy of their eighth 90-victory campaign during that stretch.

More importantly for the current Rays, the club has a large AL East lead and relatively little pressure on it to secure a 2021 playoff berth, having put itself in position to clinch as early as Thursday.