Balls glancing off gloves, runners thrown out trying to steal sink Rays in World Series opener
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A few inches here or there, combined with some smarter baserunning by Victor Mesa Jr., and the Tampa Bay Rays might have won the World Series opener.
Mesa and Jonathan Aranda were caught stealing in consecutive innings, and the Milwaukee Brewers scored twice in a two-pitch span when hard-hit balls deflected off the gloves of center fielder Jonny DeLuca and shortstop Taylor Walls in the first.
Milwaukee came away with a 3-2 victory Friday night, winning on the margins and taking advantage of the types of mistakes the Rays usually pounce on to beat opponents.
“Definitely have to be smart. We talked about that coming in,” Tampa Bay outfielder Chandler Simpson said. “They just played the game better than us today.”
DeLuca missed his attempt at a diving catch on Christian Yelich’s one-out drive in the first inning with Jackson Chourio on first base. Yelich hit an 0-2 cutter to the right-center gap and DeLuca sprinted 85 feet and sprawled. The ball bounced off his glove in front of the warning track and rolled away for a go-ahead triple.
“You can’t be perfect in this game,” DeLuca said. “You’re going to fail a lot more than you’re going to succeed.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash didn't view it as a failure.
“Jonny covered a lot of ground right there to even make that play close," he said. “Highlight-reel play.”
With the infield in, William Contreras lined the next pitch at 108.4 mph. The ball glanced off the webbing of Walls' glove and into left field for an RBI single and a 2-0 lead.
“We gave ourselves plenty of opportunities, put ourselves in really good positions to score runs, to prevent runs,” Walls said. “We had some good plays where we did prevent some, and then we had some that we were inches away from maybe saving a couple more.”
With the Rays trailing 2-1 after Liam Hicks' RBI groundout in the fourth, Mesa was caught stealing third for the final out of the fifth with slugger Yandy Díaz at the plate.
“Victor is really competing, trying to do something to make something happen, put a little pressure on the defense,” Cash said, “and it didn’t work in our favor.”
One inning later, Aranda was thrown out trying to swipe second as Simpson struck out on a low slider for an inning-ending double play.
“That’s on me, ultimately. So much trust in Chandler putting the ball in play,” Cash said. “But he had a pretty nasty pitch.”
Contreras, the Brewers' catcher, had an excellent 1.49-second pop time in throwing out Mesa.
“Not surprised by anything that he did, but that’s not going to change our aggressive approach, certainly on the bases,” Cash said.
In the seventh, reliever Steven Matz issued a leadoff walk to Brewers rookie Cooper Pratt after getting ahead 1-2 in the count. Pratt eventually came around to score a critical insurance run.
Tampa Bay went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position while Milwaukee was 2 for 8. The Rays led the major leagues with a .283 RISP average during the season and the Brewers were second at .276.
“They play the same type of game we play, so we know it’s going to be close, like today was, and we're expecting that all throughout the Series,” Simpson said. “We've got to continue to play our game the best that we can and we should come out on top most of the time.”
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