Rays pick up right where they left off to start 2nd half

KANSAS CITY -- There was only one thing manager Kevin Cash hoped to see from the Rays as they returned to the field Friday night after a restful, relaxing All-Star break.

“Just want to win,” Cash said Friday afternoon. “We’ve won games this first half [in] many different ways. We've done it with the bats. We've certainly done it with the pitching. We've done it with the defense.”

The Rays picked up right where they left off in the first half and did it with all of the above -- plus a four-run inning that turned on a bloody nose -- in a 7-3 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Tampa Bay won for the 12th time in its last 17 games to hold on to the top American League Wild Card spot and move to 11 games over .500, tied for the club’s high-water mark of the season.

The Rays and Royals traded runs in the third inning, then Tampa Bay rallied in a bizarre fourth against Kansas City starter Brad Keller. Isaac Paredes worked a leadoff walk, Josh Lowe slapped a single to left, and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. With one out, Francisco Mejía chopped a ball over a leaping Keller for an RBI infield single that gave the Rays the lead.

Up came Brett Phillips, who said he noticed Keller had been “messing with his nose” while falling behind in the at-bat. The right-hander finally motioned to the dugout, drawing out Royals manager Mike Matheny and head athletic trainer Kyle Turner to attend to what turned out to be a random nosebleed.

Turner treated Keller’s nose for about four minutes, leaving him in the game with a piece of gauze up his left nostril to stop the bleeding. But neither Keller nor the break in the action could stop the Rays. When play resumed, Phillips took one pitch and walked to load the bases.

“To see him stay in with some gauze in his nose, it's a grinder right there. I respect it,” Phillips said. “And I'm glad he threw me a ball because, I'm not gonna lie, my eyes were looking at his nose.”

That brought up Yandy Díaz, who said he’d never faced a pitcher with gauze sticking out of his nose and joked he was “a little scared” of Keller for that reason. Díaz pulled a 1-0 slider to left field for a three-run double, with Phillips racing around to score from first. It was his 12th double in his last 21 games, five more than he had in his first 63 games of the year.

“People try to prepare a little bit more when you have runners on base,” Díaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “That's what I did today, and that's what I try to do.”

It should come as no surprise that Díaz delivered the biggest hit of the night. He’s reached base safely in 20 consecutive starts dating back to June 26, the longest such streak of his career. He has hit .383/.479/.533 with 14 RBIs in 17 games this month, boosting his on-base percentage for the year to .409, which ranks tied for third in the Majors.

“He's putting together a great season,” Cash said. “When we've got guys on base, he's a pretty likable guy to be at the plate. You know he's going to give you a good at-bat.”

The bloody details were different, but it was the kind of rally the Rays have enjoyed a lot more often lately. It was the sixth time in 18 games this month that they scored at least four runs in one inning, compared to only three such frames in June. As a result, the Rays are scoring 5.33 runs per game in July compared to the 3.99 they averaged last month.

They’re still lacking in the longball department, with only 18 this month, but they rank among the league’s July leaders in doubles (46, first), hits (168, fifth), walks (68, third), average (.270, fifth) and on-base percentage (.352, third). That was how they did it Friday night, the 16th time they’ve won without hitting a homer: eight hits, eight walks, two doubles and nearly everyone in the lineup finding ways to get on base.

As steady as the Rays’ pitching has been nearly all season, exemplified again by Drew Rasmussen’s five-inning/one-run start against the Royals, more of the same from their lineup would go a long way.

“You see playoff and World Series teams get production one through nine and then guys off the bench,” Phillips said. “Moving forward, if we're going to chase the Yankees down and where we're at with the Wild Card, we’ve got to continue to have production through everyone on the team.”