Diaz Homers Twice, Rasmussen Looks Like Ace in Rays' 4-0 Shutout of Dodgers

TAMPA, Fla. — Well, that looked familiar. It's a hazy, faded memory, but the best version of the Tampa Bay Rays was clearly visible on Saturday in a wildly impressive 4-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Everything went right. And that's a good thing, because it's been a while. A long while.

The Rays got two home runs from Yandy Diaz, including one to lead off the first inning, and Drew Rasmussen pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings as Tampa Bay knocked off the defending world champions on Saturday at Steinbrenner Field. The win featured lights-out starting pitching that you would expect from an ace, terrific work from the bullpen, timely longballs and great defense.

The Rays looked very much like the team that went 25-9 from late May through most of June, getting to 11 games over .500. And they looked nothing like the team that went an MLB-worst 7-18 in July and lost 5-0 to the Dodgers to open up August.

They got ahead early, and never let the Dodgers fight back. It was their most impressive win in a long while.

"Our mentality was to attack early, and thank God things went well for us today, especially with the way we've been playing lately'' said Diaz through interpretor Eddie Rodriguez, who now has 20 homers on the season. "Hopefully from today on, things are going to get better. Everybody know that (Rasmussen) is a great pitcher, and hopefully the rest of his starts will look like this too.''

Diaz, who might be the best hitter in baseball when going the opposite way, took advantage of the short porch in right field on both homers. The shot in the first would have only been a homer at Steinbrenner Field, and his two-run homer in the third inning only went 341 feet, a homer in just three of 30 MLB ballparks.

Diaz, who played first base with Jonathan Aranda out with a fractured wrist, didn't care one bit.

"It doesn't matter. It's still a home run and an RBI. That's all that matters to me,'' he said.

Third baseman Junior Caminero also homered, hitting a 400-foot shot to center field in the sixth inning to make it 4-0. It was his 28th home run of the season, which is third in the American League behind only Seattle's Cal Raleigh (42) and New York's Aaron Judge (37)

But this game was really all about Rasmussen, who's an All-Star and the best pitcher on the Rays roster. He's 9-5 with a 2.81 ERA now, and he didn't allow a run for the eighth time this season. He didn't walk anyone, and allowed just four hits.

None of them were hit hard. In the second inning, Teoscar Hernandez hit a little bloop to shallow center that second baseman Ha-Seong Kim just barely missed. He was wiped out on a double play. Freddie Freeman reached on a two-out infield single in the fourth and Alex Freeland singled in the fifth with two out.

Miguel Rojas, the Dodgers' No. 9 hitter, led off the sixth inning with a perfect bunt to reach. Rasmussen, who's on a pitch-watch and hasn't thrown in to the sixth inning since June 19, got Mookie Betts out on a fly ball for the first out. But with two lefties coming up — All-Stars Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman — coming up, Rays mananger Kevin Cash decided to go to his bullpen and bring in lefty Garrett Cleavinger.

The move didn't quite work because both of them laced first-pitch sinkers into right field to load the bases. But Cleavinger got re-set and forced a ground ball up the middle from Hernandez. Shortstop Taylor Walls made a great play, and flipped to Kim, who turned the double play.

The bullpen took it from there. Edwin Uceta pitched two perfect innings and the Pete Fairbanks closed it out with three straight outs in the ninth. They Rays are now 55-57

Rasmussen, who was working with new catcher Hunter Feduccia for the first time, felt good the whole way, and was glad to see the Rays play so well from start to finish.

"It's a good lineup over there, but it was one of those things were execution is what matters the most at the end of the day,'' he said. "We got ahead early, and did a good job with pitch location. We did a good job of staying on the same page.

"The next two months are sprint and every game matters, and that double play ball (in the sixth) was huge. To get a ball on the ground and hit it to our guys, we know how good Wallsy and Kim are. They couldn't have done a better job, especially after a couple of balls were struck well, It was big for (Cleavinger) to get that ground ball.

Rasmussen still feels good about the Rays righting the ship and contending for a playoff spot. He knows that 25-9 run was real, because it was so long. He's confident they can do something like that again.

"The run we had in May and June was so long, and even though July wasn't the best month ever, that run was so long that it is sustainable. It is who we are. It's not like we got hot for 10 days. That was, what, six or eight weeks? That team is in here. It was great (Saturday). It was pretty stereotypical. We got good pitching one through nine and we got some big hits that left the yard.''

The two teams wrap up the series on Sunday, in a 12:10 p.m. ET game. Joe Boyle (1-1, 2.82 ERA) will start for the Rays, and he will take on Yoshinobu Yamamoto (9-7, 2.63 ERA). After that, the Rays leave for a two-week West Coast road trip, to take on the Angels, Mariners, Athletics and Giants.