Patient approach paying off as Rays mount yet another comeback

TORONTO -- Here’s how to keep scraping up those narrow comeback wins: One good at-bat at a time.

The Rays did it again on Saturday afternoon, holding on for a 5-4 win after leapfrogging the Blue Jays with five unanswered runs at Rogers Centre. It was their 12th comeback win of the year, tied for second in the Majors, and their ninth one-run victory.

Nothing came easily, but Tampa Bay kept finding a way -- as has been the case more often than not recently.

“Our backs were against the wall early in the game and the guys came up for me,” said starter Zach Eflin. “ … It’s just the sense of people having each other’s backs. We’re playing really good baseball right now.”

This win had “Rays” written all over it -- another nail-biter built on a patient approach and trust in their pitching staff. It’s been working better lately, after an unreasonably challenging April. It was Tampa Bay’s fifth win in six games during this current road trip, all of which have come by a margin of two runs or fewer.

“It was all a matter of time,” Yandy Díaz said in Spanish. “We didn’t start off well, but I’ve said it before, this team is the best in the Major Leagues. It was just a matter of time, and thankfully things are working out better now.”

It all seems to start with Díaz.

The wheels were set in motion long before Jonny DeLuca delivered the game-winning swing: a two-run homer in the eighth to cap off the Rays’ five-run rally. That’s in large part because of what Díaz did at the plate, reaching base all five times with three hits in the win.

Díaz wasn’t impervious to the Rays’ tough start to the season, but May has brought better results for him too. The first baseman is now batting .338 with an .885 OPS, two homers and 12 RBIs in 16 games this month.

Even after an unquestionably successful day, though, Díaz isn’t ready to say he feels 100% back to normal.

“I still don’t feel totally well about how I’m connecting with my swing,” said Díaz. “But little by little things will start to get better with the work I’ve been doing in the cage.”

His manager was a bit more optimistic.

“It's heading in the right direction,” said Kevin Cash. “It’s felt like that for quite some time now, so good for him. He sets as good a tone as any leadoff hitter in baseball. And when he's right, that's what he's capable of doing.”

It’s fitting that Díaz was the one who started the rally, opening the sixth inning with a single and coming in to score as the Rays answered the Blue Jays’ three-run bottom of the fifth with a three-run frame of their own.

A single by Isaac Paredes and DeLuca’s two-run blast two innings later put Tampa Bay ahead for good, as the bullpen locked in after Eflin threw six innings of four-run ball.

“When you go down [against Kevin Gausman], just the type of pitcher he is, you know how challenging it is to get yourself back in the game,” said Cash. “But we did some good things.”

It started with getting creative with the lineup. The Rays rolled out an all-righty squad against Gausman, determined to stay patient at the plate and string together quality at-bats. It paid off, as Gausman toiled for six innings with 102 pitches and three earned runs.

“It doesn’t matter who’s on the mound,” Díaz said. “It can be the best pitcher in the world. We’ll always have 10,000% confidence [in ourselves].”

That confidence is contagious.

Take DeLuca’s game-winning swing, for example. Facing a flamethrower in Nate Pearson with a runner on and nobody out, DeLuca had a potential plan to bunt, advance pinch-runner Richie Palacios and make way for Amed Rosario, who had already driven in two.

Instead, DeLuca swung for the fences on the first pitch -- a middle-middle 97 mph fastball that left his bat at 105.9 mph.

“I was like, ‘First pitch, I’m going to sit heater,’” DeLuca said. “And I ended up getting a good swing on it. It was a good decision, in retrospect.”

This is why the Rays preached patience through that rough first month. The good decisions are finally translating into results.

“Today was a huge win,” said Cash. “To come back right there, we should be feeling pretty good about ourselves. I feel like that’s a little bit more representative of who we are.”