Cleveland Guardians at Tampa Bay Rays

· Major League Baseball

Cleveland Guardians

57-36, 27-25 Away

Final
0 - 2

Tampa Bay Rays

47-47, 26-26 Home

Taj Bradley allows 5 hits in 7 innings, Rays beat AL Central-leading Guardians 2-0

Bradley (4-4) struck out eight and walked two in his seventh consecutive strong start. The right-hander has given up five earned runs over his 42 innings.

“I had a calmness today,” Bradley said. “Just trusting in my stuff now, just knowing it’s going to be what it is.”

Colin Poche struck out two in a perfect eighth before Jason Adam had three strikeouts in an 1-2-3 ninth to complete a five-hitter and get his fourth save. Tampa Bay improved to 47-47.

“We didn’t lose this game because of the runs we gave up,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said, “We struggled. Taj Bradley was outstanding. He was landing everything. Didn’t make any mistakes."

Major league batting leader Steven Kwan went 1 for 4 for the Guardians, who have lost 10 of 16. He is hitting .359.

Light-hitting catcher Alex Jackson was hitless in 26 a-bats before getting a leadoff double in the fifth off Carlos Carrasco (3-7), and scored to put the Rays up 2-0 on Yandy Díaz's groundball double down the first-base line.

Jackson reached on an error to start the third, went to third on Díaz’s flare single to right, and came home on Brandon Lowe's double-play grounder.

Jackson went 2 for 4 to raise his average from .062 to .086. Díaz finished with three hits.

Bradley said a key part of his success is Jackson's handling of game preparation.

“It was just working together, kind of just building a relationship,” Jackson said. “Getting to a point where we have trust and we’re in this together.”

Carrasco gave up two runs, one earned, and six hits over five innings. The 37-year old has gone at least five innings in six consecutive starts.

“Cookie was outstanding,” Vogt said. “He gets into jams, but he finds a way to wiggle out. This guy knows how to pitch and that’s the one thing with Cookie. we know he’s going to give us an opportunity to win.”

The Rays had a runner on third with two outs in the second when Richie Palacios hit an 108.5 mph smash that went airborne off first base to first baseman Josh Naylor, who won the race to the bag to get the out.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Guardians: Reliever Sam Hentges (left shoulder inflammation) was placed on the 15-day IL. “It seems to be manageable right now, but we don’t want to do anything detrimental for him," Vogt said, … RHP Xzavion Curry was recalled from Triple-A Columbus, and struck out two with the bases loaded in the seventh. … LHP Matt Boyd (Tommy John surgery) had his second batting practice session on Thursday.

Rays: RHP Drew Rasmussen (right elbow internal brace surgery) will throw batting practice on Saturday and then is set to join Triple-A Durham after the All Star break.

Cleveland RHP Gavin Williams (0-1, 4.82 ERA) and Tampa Bay RHP Zack Littell (3-6, 4.44 ERA) are set to start Saturday.

How can I watch Cleveland Guardians vs. Tampa Bay Rays?

TV Channel: Guardians at Rays 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on Apple TV+.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Rays: 54.4%

Guardians: 45.6%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Giménez struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Noel struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	J. Naylor struck out looking.
	9th Inning	Adam relieved Poché
	8th Inning	Díaz lined out to right.
	8th Inning	Jackson doubled to center.

Statistics

CLE		TB
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
6	Ground Balls	11
13	Strikeouts	8
0	Runs Batted In	1
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
5	Hits	9
0	Stolen Bases	1
2	Walks	4
0	Catcher Interference	0
0	Runs	2
1	Ground Into Double Play	1
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
31	At Bats	33
0	Home Runs	0
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
12	Runners Left On Base	24
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
1	Doubles	4
12	Fly Balls	14
0	Caught Stealing	0
122	Pitches	144
0	Games Started	0
1	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
6	Total Bases	13
33	Plate Appearances	37
0.0	Projected Home Runs	0.0
1	Extra Base Hits	4
0.5	Runs Created	4.7
.161	Batting Average	.273
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.194	Slugging Percentage	.394
.097	Secondary Average	.273
.212	On Base Percentage	.351
.406	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.745
0.5	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.8
0.5	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	5.0
7.0	Batter Rating	24.0
0.0	At Bats Per Home Run	0.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.70	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.89
.032	Isolated Power	.121
0.15	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.50
.061	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.108
-.065	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.000
0.0	Runs Produced	3.0
0.0	Runs Ratio	0.5
0.2	Patience Ratio	0.5
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.4
60.8	MLB Rating	77.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0