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Game 165 // Fourth Inning // The Rays Score Eight

The Big InningBlog

The Rays are now in first place in the AL East.

And not looking like any kind of fluke.

 

 

 

Fourteen runs in the game, and eight in the bottom of this fourth inning.

Which started like this:

Jose Martinez walks.

Tsutugo walks.

And Hunter Renfroe, with a deep home run to left-center. For a 4-1 lead.

 

 

 

And then, almost before they finish the replay on the Renfroe home run, Joey Wendle goes deep—on the very next pitch.

 

 

 

He comes back to the dugout, to a socially-distant tunnel of elbow knocks—the official gesture of 2020 now, as the high-five gets retired, forgotten, verboten.

Rays lead 5-1.

And then, right at that moment, the major-league career of the once-great Mike Foltynewicz may have seen its end. He’s pulled from the game, and DFA’d later that evening.

The guy who was an All-Star in 2018. The guy who fell apart last year and started the ten runs in the first inning NLDS game, against the Cardinals.

And the guy who the Rays knocked out here today, maybe for good.

 

 

 

Folty heads home, Touki Toussaint comes in from the Braves’ bullpen—and whatever change was meant to ensue does not ensue.

Kiermaier rips a ground ball in the hole behind shortstop, Swanson can’t come up with it. Adames scores, 6-1 Rays.

Zunino is hit by a pitch.

And then, Brandon Lowe. Launching a deep line drive to center, and Inciarte loses it against the roof of the Trop. Two runs score. Rays lead 8-1.

 

 

 

And finally, to cap it all off, a wild pitch. Lowe scores.

9-1 Rays. Eight runs in the inning.

 

 

 

Here’s the full video, on the (new) Big Inning Youtube channel:

 

 

 

And one last, most notable detail:

In the top half of the inning, Tyler Glasnow recorded his ninth strikeout of the game, at the end of an outing capped by a pitch limit—just off a recovery from coronavirus.

2.25 K’s per inning today, to start off his Cy Young campaign. 

Here are all nine:

 

 

 

And by the end of the game, the Rays set a franchise record.

19 strikeouts, together from four different pitchers.

 

 

 

These Rays might just be contenders, in the most bonafide way.

3-1 on the year, leading the American League.

 

 

 

 

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