MLB Game Recap - Texas at Tampa Bay
Sun Jun 30, 2019 1:10 PM EDT

NYY
12
BOS
8
F
CLE
2
BAL
0
F
KC
7
TOR
6
F
PHI
13
MIA
6
F
CHC
6
CIN
8
F
WSH
2
DET
1
F
TEX
2
TB
6
F
PIT
1
MIL
2
F
SEA
1
HOU
6
F
MIN
3
CHW
4
F
LAD
10
COL
5
F
ARI
4
SF
10
F
OAK
12
LAA
3
F
STL
5
SD
3
F(11)
ATL
5
NYM
8
F

June 30, 2019 1:10 PM

Final

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

Texas

0

0

0

2

0

0

0

0

0

2

4

1

Tampa Bay

0

1

0

2

1

0

0

2

x

6

9

0

W: Snell (5-7)

L: Chavez (3-3)

TEX - HR: Gallo (20)

TB - HR: Pham (13)

Snell has 12 strikeouts in 6 innings, Rays beat Rangers 6-2
Sun Jun 30, 2019 5:39 PM

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Blake Snell has felt good on the mound despite not getting a lot of wins.

After a difficult stretch, the left-hander got a good outcome Sunday.

Snell (5-7, 4.87 ERA) struck out 12 over six innings for just his second win in 10 starts and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Texas Rangers 6-2 on Sunday.

"The way that I feel and what I'm doing I believe it's better than last year," Snell, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, said. "Consistency, swing-and-miss, strikes, less walks, weak contact, everything. The only thing that's bad is ERA and length that I'm going in starts."

Snell gave up three hits during an 80-pitch outing. He had an 11.94 ERA (17 1/3 innings, 23 earned runs) in five previous starts this month.

"Did a lot of things actually very similar to what he's been doing," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Just a little better at command and location to those pitches."

Snell threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of 20 batters.

"He wasn't really doing that before," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. "When he's ahead in the count, he's a Cy Young winner for a reason."

Tommy Pham homered for the Rays, who won consecutive games for the first time since June 9-10. The first AL wild card leaders went 13-16 in June.

Four Tampa Bay relievers completed a four-hitter that included 17 strikeouts.

Texas got a two-run homer from Joey Gallo.

After Kevin Kiermaier had an RBI single and Willy Adames added a run-scoring single off Jesse Chavez (3-3) the fourth, Pham's fifth-inning solo shot made it 4-2.

Chavez allowed four runs and five hits in six innings.

Kiermaier had an RBI triple in a two-run eighth.

Gallo's two-run homer in the fourth off Snell got stuck on the "D-Ring" catwalk, which is approximately 70-feet above the right-field seats.

"I didn't notice that it didn't come down," Gallo said. "But that was a pretty cool home run off a guy who's really nasty."

Gallo had the only Texas hit through three innings, a leadoff bunt single in the second against a shift that had four outfielders and three infielders on the first-base side of second.

He was thrown out on another bunt attempt in the seventh against Colin Poche with a runner on first and no outs, and Texas trailing 4-2.

"Obviously a lot came into play," said Gallo, who talked with Woodward about the situation before the at-bat. "It's a tough lefty who struck me out the day before. Obviously if I lay one down and get it a little more over to the left, we're having a different conversation about it."

Cash was ejected by plate umpire Bruce Dreckman in the second for arguing after Avisail Garcia took a called third strike.

"Bruce Dreckman does a tremendous job," Cash said. "We just didn't see eye-to-eye."

MORE McKAY

Rays two-way player Brendan McKay could hit before the All-Star break. "If there's an opportunity to get him in there where we feel it's a fit with his workload we'll do that," manager Kevin Cash said. McKay allowed one hit in six innings Saturday to get the win in his debut against Texas and is scheduled to pitch against the New York Yankees Friday night.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Rangers: 2B Rougned Odor, hurt Friday running the bases, was scratched due to lingering left hamstring tightness but pinch-hit in the ninth. ... 3B Asdrubal Cabrera sat out with lower back tightness.

UP NEXT

Rangers: AL ERA leader Mike Minor (8-4, 2.40) will face Los Angeles Angels LHP Jose Suarez (2-1) Monday night. Minor has gone eight-or-more innings, including a complete game Wednesday at Detroit, while allowing one run in two straight starts.

Rays: Opener Ryne Stanek (0-1) will start Monday night's game against Baltimore, which hasn't announced a starter.

---

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports

Pitchers of Record

Texas IP H ER BB K ERA WHIP
J. Chavez (L, 3-3) 6 5 3 0 8 4.50 0.833
Tampa Bay IP H ER BB K ERA WHIP
B. Snell (W, 5-7) 6 3 2 0 12 3.00 0.500

Batting Leaders

Texas AB H R HR RBI BB TB SB RC
J. Gallo 2 2 1 1 2 0 5 0 1.8
E. Andrus 4 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 1.0
Tampa Bay AB H R HR RBI BB TB SB RC
Y. Diaz 4 3 3 0 0 0 6 0 4.5
K. Kiermaier 4 2 2 0 2 0 4 1 2.1

Team Comparison

TEX TB
At Bats 29 33
Hits 4 9
Batting Average .138 .273
On Base Percentage .138 .306
Slugging Percentage 0.241 0.545
Doubles 0 4
Triples 0 1
Home Runs 1 1
Total Bases 7 18
Walks 0 1
Strikeouts 17 13
Stolen Bases 0 2
Caught Stealing 1 0
Runners Left On Base 1 6
Hits / At Bats with Runners In Scoring Position 0/2 3/10
Double Plays Fielded 0 0
Errors 1 0

2019 Reg Season - TB Leads Series 2-1

Date Result Winner Loser
Fri Jun 28 TEX 5 @ TB 0 L. Lynn Y. Chirinos
Sat Jun 29 TEX 2 @ TB 5 B. McKay A. Sampson
Sun Jun 30 TEX 2 @ TB 6 B. Snell J. Chavez

Game Information

Stadium: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Attendance: 11,234
Game Time: 2:28
Weather: 70F, Dome or Roof Closed
Wind:
Umpires: Home Plate - ?, First Base - ?, Second Base - ?, Third Base - ?