Kiermaier's 100-mph throw nails Bellinger

ST. PETERSBURG -- After Tuesday’s 7-3 loss to the Dodgers, the Rays acknowledged that the past two games have been “uncharacteristic” of them and that they needed to get back to playing their type of baseball, which revolves around good pitching, defense and timely hitting.

On Wednesday, the Rays checked off all the boxes and returned to form with an 8-1 win over the Dodgers at Tropicana Field.

• Box score

“Huge bounceback win for us,” Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “We have guys banged up, and we haven’t been playing our best baseball, so for us to be in another tight game until the seventh inning, it was huge.”

Pitching
Despite allowing 20 runs in the past two games, the Rays staff came into Wednesday’s game leading the Majors with a 3.27 FIP. On Wednesday, Ryne Stanek, Yonny Chirinos and the rest of the pitching staff held the Dodgers' lineup quiet.

“Yonny pitched a tremendous game I thought,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Gave up the one solo home run to a pretty imposing lineup with a sinkerball pitcher with all the lefties, but he really battled for us and kept it right there, and then the bullpen took over and did some great things.”

Emilio Pagán picked up his first win of the season and lowered his team-best ERA to 0.56 with 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

“Rich Hill threw great tonight, [but] Stanek, Chirinos and all our pitchers threw even better, so that was a huge bounceback win for us,” Kiermaier said. “We have to try and ride that momentum into Cleveland [on Thursday]. We all needed that, for sure.”

Defense
After committing three errors and a couple of other defensive lapses that weren’t recorded as errors, the Rays played a clean defensive game, especially from the team’s best defensive player.

Kiermaier was a victim of a good throw on Tuesday when Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo threw him out at third base as he tried to stretch a double into a triple. But on Wednesday, Kiermaier got some payback, throwing out Cody Bellinger at home plate in a tie game on a 100.6 mph throw, which is the hardest for an outfield assist in 2019.

“Huge,” Cash said of the impact of Kiermaier’s throw. “I don’t think it had any carryover [from Tuesday], but for him to do what he did on defense and then at the plate to really separate the game was big for us.”

Kiermaier said he “had a feeling” Russell Martin was going to hit the ball to him in that situation, which allowed him to be ready. Once he picked up the ball, he gripped a four-seamer and fired a perfect strike to catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who made a good scoop on the short hop.

“It was a nice hop where I didn’t have to bend over too far and I gripped the four seam right away, so I liked my chances,” Kiermaier said. “I knew once I threw it that it was accurate. But that play doesn’t happen if Travis d’Arnaud doesn’t make a great pick on the short hop.”

Timely hitting
Kiermaier’s throw kept the game tied at 1, which then allowed the Rays' offense to get to work against the Dodgers' bullpen.

Los Angeles starter Rich Hill gave the Rays some issues, allowing just one run on a Tommy Pham home run through six innings. But once he exited in the seventh, the Rays erupted with a seven-run inning.

Avisaíl García, who was moved up to the leadoff spot in order to get more plate appearances against the lefty Hill, delivered the first big blow of the inning, a three-run home run off Dylan Floro to gives the Rays a 5-1 lead. Just five hitters later, Kiermaier delivered the final blow with the second three-run homer of the inning, pushing the lead to 8-1.

“I was more impressed that the guys didn’t get discouraged,” Cash said. “They just kind of stayed there. [Austin] Meadows comes up and leads off the inning, gets hit on the foot, and it kind of snowballed from there.”