Power, defense and ... smoothies fuel Rays' win

ST. PETERSBURG -- During his round of batting practice on the field, Tommy Pham connected on a ball that cleared the wall in left-center, the deepest part of Tropicana Field.

Pham, who entered Saturday’s game without a home run since Aug. 19, dropped his bat to the side and looked upwards to the heavens after seeing the ball clear the fence. He proceeded to clear the wall multiple times over the course of his session.

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That power translated to the Rays’ 9-6 win over the Indians. Pham recorded his 20th home run of the season with a go-ahead two-run shot in the third inning off Cleveland starter Zach Plesac. The exit velocity on Pham’s home run was 108 mph, and it traveled a projected 423 feet, according to Statcast. It marked the third time Pham has eclipsed the 20-homer mark in his career.

“I have a saying: If you want to hit home runs, then you have to practice hitting home runs,” Pham said. “Matt Holliday and Mark Reynolds used to always say that. I haven’t been hitting home runs in BP with my [injured right] hand. Today in BP, it felt better, and I hit some home runs. That’s a good sign.”

Heading into September, the Rays are just a half-game behind the Indians in the American League Wild Card standings, with one game remaining between the teams on Sunday. Tampa Bay is tied with Oakland, which lost in extra innings to the Yankees on Saturday, for the second Wild Card spot.

“We feel good about our chances,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We’re getting closer to being healthy, but the guys that are in this clubhouse right now active, playing, are capable of stringing together a good month. We’re certainly pleased with the effort level and the way guys have competed for five months. Now they get to go compete really hard for the sixth.”

While Pham gave the Rays the lead, he wasn’t the only member of the team to hit a towering home run against Indians pitching. Ji-Man Choi continued his hot stretch by connecting on a solo home run in the second inning to get Tampa Bay on the board.

Avisaíl García then gave the Rays some much-needed cushion, blasting his 18th home run of the season, a two-run shot projected at 446 feet in the sixth inning to put the Rays ahead, 5-2. Travis d'Arnaud added a solo homer off former Rays pitcher Hunter Wood as part of a three-run seventh inning for Tampa Bay.

The Rays' four home runs were their most since Aug. 3 against the Marlins, when they also hit four. They’re on pace to hit 216 this season, which would tie for the second most in club history behind the 2017 team (228).

“We’ve got guys that are capable of getting hot, and then two or three guys carry a load,” Cash said. “That’s not how you draw it up, but if those guys that we’re talking about get hot, we can have a pretty special offense for a month.”

Pham credited a batch of pregame smoothies he made for himself and d’Arnaud -- which included blueberries, strawberries, bananas, Greek yogurt, almond milk and blackberries -- for the power show. Mike Zunino has even offered to make Pham an apron so he will continue to make the smoothies for the remainder of the season.

“I made a smoothie for me and [d’Arnaud] today, and he said before we took it, 'If we get homers, we’ve got to keep making them,'” Pham laughed. “And we won. So, deal.”

The home runs led the way for the Rays’ offense, but the defense also played a key role. In the third inning, Kevin Kiermaier and Joey Wendle combined on a relay to nab Francisco Lindor at the plate as he tried to score from first on a Carlos Santana double. d’Arnaud made a slick scoop at the plate before applying the tag to Lindor.

Just one play later, Eric Sogard made another good defensive play behind Jalen Beeks, robbing Yasiel Puig of a single that would’ve scored Santana from third.

In the fourth inning, it was Pham’s turn to show off his defense as he combined with Sogard to throw out Franmil Reyes trying to take second base after Reyes barely missed a home run, his ball hitting the top of the railing in left field.

“That’s what we’re capable of,” said Rays reliever Emilio Pagan, who recorded his 16th save of the season. “There have been stretches where we haven’t played to our standards, but if we play like the way we’ve played the last couple of nights, we’re going to make a good run at this. It’s going to be an exciting few weeks.”