Facing one of the game's most feared hitters, Beeks doesn't blink

ST. PETERSBURG -- Called upon to face the heart of the Angels' order 3 1/2 months ago in Anaheim, lefty reliever Jalen Beeks tried to get a little too creative. He threw two high fastballs to Mike Trout, and Trout hit the second one out of the park. He threw a first-pitch slider to Shohei Ohtani, and the two-way sensation launched it over the wall in left-center.

So when Beeks came in to face the pinch-hitting Ohtani with a one-run lead, two runners on and two outs in the sixth inning on Monday night at Tropicana Field, his strategy was much more straightforward. He was going to throw his best pitch until Ohtani left the batter’s box.

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“Stick to my strengths, not try to trick him,” Beeks said. “Just stick to what I do best.”

Beeks fired four straight changeups, and the reigning American League MVP went down swinging as the last one darted out of the strike zone. That began another excellent performance by the Rays’ bullpen, with Shawn Armstrong finishing another high-leverage high-wire act to preserve Tampa Bay’s 2-1 win.

The Rays’ third straight victory pushed them to a season-high-tying 11 games over .500, at 66-55, and gave them a half-game lead over the idle Blue Jays and Mariners for the AL’s top Wild Card spot.

They’ve won eight of their last 10 games, and it's no surprise that their pitchers have played a big part during this stretch, allowing two runs or fewer in each win. The starters have a 1.78 ERA, and the bullpen’s ERA is just 1.53 despite a heavy workload and a bunch of tight, pressure-packed games.

“Whoever is down there, whatever role -- closing games out, big spots -- they're going to get the job done,” said starter Jeffrey Springs, who held the Angels to one run while striking out seven over 5 2/3 innings. “They've been doing it all year. It's amazing how good they are.”

Beeks has displayed that flexible mentality as well as anyone this season. He has both opened and closed, pitched in every inning from the first to the 10th, and covered everything from two outs to 2 1/3 innings. His job on Monday was to retire one of the game’s most dangerous hitters in a big spot.

He came through, then followed with a scoreless seventh inning.

“He does it every single time he gets the ball, and it doesn't matter who's in the batter's box when Beeks is on the mound,” Armstrong said. “We’ve got all the confidence in the world in him, and he's got all the confidence in the world in himself.”

That confidence is necessary for any bullpen, particularly one as versatile and oft-used as the Rays’. And it’s especially critical when Tampa Bay is playing so many close games.

The Rays scored first in Monday’s series opener on a David Peralta single in the fourth, then pulled ahead again in the fifth on Randy Arozarena’s fifth homer in his last 12 games. It fell upon the bullpen to make sure that one-run lead held up.

The Rays have made a habit of turning little-known relievers into high-leverage weapons. Jason Adam, for instance, signed a split contract in Spring Training and, after a three-strikeout eighth inning on Monday, has a 1.07 ERA as Tampa Bay’s top high-leverage option. The club shows its confidence in pitchers by trusting them in key spots, and that belief builds over time.

As another example, take Armstrong pitching the ninth in a one-run game. The right-hander began this year in the Marlins’ bullpen, became a free agent on May 4 and signed a Minor League deal with the Rays less than a week later. Tampa Bay stuck with him and gradually introduced him to higher-leverage situations, and on Monday he delivered a clean inning to pick up his first Major League save since Aug. 4, 2019.

“I think we've seen the confidence really spike -- and it should, because he's thrown the ball really well for us,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Seems like now his stuff is really good, and he's pitching with a lot of confidence.”

That made Armstrong the 10th Rays pitcher to record a save this season -- and he almost certainly won’t be the last.

“It's so fun being a part of a bullpen where you know whoever's going in there, they're going to do their job,” Adam said. “It doesn't matter when, doesn't matter what. … Get your outs.”