Wacha sharp again as Rays get back on track

ST. PETERSBURG -- The last time Michael Wacha faced the Twins was at the end of a tough stretch. He allowed seven runs on 11 hits, including two homers, in a 12-run loss at Target Field on Aug. 14. He’d yielded 18 runs and 30 hits in his last 14 innings. His ERA climbed to 5.91, and his spot in the Rays’ rotation seemed precarious.

But the Rays remained confident in Wacha, and the veteran right-hander never lost faith in himself. Sooner or later, they believed, things would turn around for him.

Facing the Twins again Friday night at Tropicana Field, Wacha pitched six strong innings and led the Rays to a 5-3 win. He allowed two runs on three hits and struck out seven without walking a batter to earn his first win since July 7.

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“It does feel like Wach is in a good spot and he’s able to build off it. The stuff looks really, really crisp, really sharp from the side. He’s competing like he always has,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Wach kind of grinds through everything, and his mentality allows him to get through that tough part of the season to come out on the other side. That’s why we’re so pumped for him picking us up in such a big way.”

The Rays’ victory, their 14th in their last 17 games, ended a brief two-game losing streak and prevented Tampa Bay’s first three-game skid since July 25-28. With 27 games remaining, the Rays (85-50) still own the American League’s best record and a 6 1/2-game lead over the Yankees (78-56) in the AL East.

Since being hit around by the Twins three starts ago, Wacha has been a different -- and much more effective -- pitcher. He has all but scrapped his cutter. He has thrown more changeups and curveballs to complement his four-seam fastball.

And now, he’s finally getting the results he wants more consistently. Wacha has a 3.52 ERA with 22 strikeouts and only two walks in 15 1/3 innings over his last three starts.

“I was just trying to stay positive through it all. It was definitely a tough stretch,” Wacha said. “In those times, you’ve just got to trust you’re a better pitcher than the results that were showing up, and trust that the results will get better and go more in my favor. It was a lot of work with [pitching coach Kyle] Snyder and the guys to get me back where I needed to be, but it was encouraging tonight.”

Friday’s outing wasn’t perfect. Wacha said he’d like a few pitches back, presumably the full-count fastball Jorge Polanco hit out to right field in the first inning and the 0-2 changeup Ryan Jeffers took deep in the sixth.

But Wacha didn’t hurt himself by giving the Twins any free baserunners, getting ahead by throwing first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 21 hitters he faced and attacking from there. He retired 11 straight between the second inning and Jeffers’ homer with two outs in the fifth. He piled up six of his seven strikeouts with his changeup, one of the pitches he has worked to improve with Snyder between starts.

“It’s definitely encouraging. After the last outing against them, it was good to get back out there and get another opportunity to face these guys,” Wacha said. “The changeup was a good pitch for me. It was a pretty good equalizer off the fastball.”

Assisted by Joey Wendle’s sharp snag in the sixth inning, Wacha breezed through another perfect frame and exited with an efficient pitch count of 86 after six innings, matching his longest outing of the season.

“That boy right there is a gamer. He's a vet. He's been around. It doesn't come by surprise,” Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier said. “Yeah, he had a little rough stretch there, but you learn a lot about your teammates during those times -- and I never saw him complain or hang his head one time.

“Those guys are huge for our clubhouse, because when blank hits the fan, you see who you can count on. … He did just that tonight [and] his last start. That's great.”

After scoring only two runs over their last two games against the Red Sox, the Rays’ lineup gave Wacha all the run support he needed by scoring three runs in the second and two more in the third against Twins right-hander Randy Dobnak.

Austin Meadows doubled and scored, Kiermaier ripped an RBI triple to right-center to put the Rays ahead, and Yandy Díaz plated Kiermaier with a groundout in the second. Nelson Cruz laced an RBI double to the gap in right-center against his former team in the third, then Meadows singled to center to pick up his 94th RBI of the season. The Twins retired 18 straight after that, but the five-run outburst was enough.

“We didn't finish that Boston series quite the way we wanted to, so to start a new series off on the right foot was huge for us,” Kiermaier said. “Wacha pitched great. We had some big at-bats early on, and we just let the pitchers do all the dirty work from there on out. So that was huge.”