MLB Hoosiers (Aug. 20): Slegers Pitches Perfect Inning in Rays' Sweep of Yankees
Aaron Slegers has joined the Tampa Bay Rays at the perfect time. They are red hot, and he's bounced back great from his one bad inning in his debut.
Slegers, one of six former Indiana players in the major leagues, pitched a perfect eighth inning on Thursday afternoon in the Rays' 10-5 win that completed a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees. Slegers got a hold, and got his first save of the season four days ago in a perfect inning.
He's part of a Rays team that just had a 9-1 road trip and swept the Boston Red Sox and Yankees back-to-back, something no team had done on the same road trip in 30 years.
"Our pitchers were just tremendous throughout the series,'' Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. "When you can pitch, you can always give yourself a chance. I think that’s what we did, we pitched well and came up with some timely hits.’'
With the win, the Rays moved into first place in the American League East. They are 5-1 against the Yankees this season.
“The guys have worked hard to get here and get to that spot,’' Cash said. “We’ve got plenty of challenges ahead of us, but we’ve got to enjoy this. You don’t have many road trips like we just had.’'
Slegers has pitched four-plus innings thus far, and three of them were good. He gave up five runs to Boston, which will spike his ERA for a while, but besides that, he's been very good.
Hoosiers in the Pros on Thursday
- Alex Dickerson, San Francisco Giants: Dickerson pinch-hit in the second inning and walked with he bases loaded to drive in a run. He also drove in another run in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly in the Giants' 10-5 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
- Caleb Baragar, San Francisco Giants: Baragar did not pitch in the Giants' win.
- Kyle Hart, Boston Red Sox: Hart did not pitch Thursday. He's had two starts thus far for the Red Sox. He is schedule to start again on Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays.
- Kyle Schwarber, Chicago Cubs: The Cubs had the day off. They are back in action on Friday when they start a three-game series against their crosstown rivals, the Chicago White Sox.
- Josh Phegley, Chicago Cubs: The Cubs had the day off.
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