Bill Chastain covered last nights comeback win against the Royals. It can also be found on MLB.com
KANSAS CITY — Joe Maddon freed Willy on Saturday night, and starting Willy Aybar against Zack Greinke provedto be the right call, as the Rays took a 4-2 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium with 30,288 watching.
Aybar, who was making just his second start since June 30, was told before the game by the Rays manager that he would be starting against the Royals ace and he responded by going 4-for-4, including a game-winning double off Juan Cruz in the eighth.
“I’m a frontline guy, and whenever I get an opportunity I’m going to do the best I can,” said Aybar. “I’m not going to waste at-bats.”
Aybar had never faced Greinke before, but Maddon said he saw something in the piles of statistics generated before each series that told him Aybar would have a good chance for success Saturday night.
“Man, Joe’s a genius, isn’t he,” teased Pat Burrell when asked about Maddon starting Aybar. “When you’re in a thing
like this and you’re trying to be a good team, everybody has to contribute. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is find spots to give guys playing time. If you were going to get to play and you got to pick one guy to play against, I don’t think it would be Greinke, so you have to give [Aybar] a lot of credit.”
By winning, the Rays moved to within 5 1/2 games of the American League East-leading Red Sox, who lost, 6-2, to the Blue Jays on Saturday. And for the second consecutive night, the Rays erased a one-run deficit in the eighth inning to claim the win.
Carlos Pena drew a leadoff walk from Royals left-hander John Bale to start the eighth. After Ben Zobrist grounded out to move Pena to second, the Royals brought in Cruz. Friday night the hard-throwing right-hander surrendered a two-run game-winning homer to Evan Longoria. Saturday night Burrell greeted him with an RBI double to right that tied the score. Aybar followed with the game-winning double to right, plating pinch-runner Joe Dillon from second.
“I was sitting on a changeup, in the past I’ve done that,” Aybar said.
B.J. Upton added an RBI single in the eighth off Roman Colon to put the Rays up 4-2. Dan Wheeler and J.P Howell pitched two scoreless frames to finish the game and preserve the win.
The Royals went ahead in the seventh after Rays starter Scott Kazmir left the game due to mild cramping in his left forearm — which is not believed to be serious — and Grant Balfour took over. Balfour retired the first hitter he faced then walked Alberto Callaspo before Yuniesky Betancourt hit what appeared to be an inning-ending double-play ball to Aybar. Instead, the Rays second baseman let the ball go through his legs. Callaspo advance to third on the play, and the inning stayed alive for him to score when David DeJesus hit into a fielder’s choice to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.
The early part of Saturday night’s contest had been a pitchers’ duel between Kazmir and Greinke, but neither pitcher received a decision.
“You’ve got to give a lot of the credit to Kaz for keeping us in the game,” Burrell said. “Neither team seemed to want to score any runs. We were able to get some late and tack on a few more, and it was enough. But we’re playing good, and hopefully we’re starting to do that. You’ve got to get wins like this.”
Kazmir allowed one run on four hits in six innings and felt encouraged about his outing.
“I felt really good — felt like I had my legs under me,” Kazmir said. “[I] felt like I had my velocity. Slider — I had a little trouble controlling that, [though it] felt good off my finger tips. Felt like I was getting good bites with it, but I spiked it into the ground most of the time. So tweak it here and there and I’ll be able to have it as my strikeout pitch.”
Greinke went seven innings and allowed one run on nine hits while striking out seven.
“He’s just got great stuff,” Burrell said. “And he’s pitching good. And he has an idea of what he’s doing. And he changes speeds. He’s got overpowering stuff. We were fortunate to get one early off him.”
Royals manager Trey Hillman was frustrated about the lack of run support his team has been giving his ace.
“We gotta do a better job of getting [Greinke] run support,” Hillman said. “Five hits is not enough against a club like this, and two runs — they’re dangerous, especially if we’re not going to be more effective out of the bullpen.”
Bill Chastain is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Thomas Gemkow is the editor-in-chief of TampaBayRaysFan.com. Founded in January of 2009, TampaBayRaysFan.com is a compilation of all the best of the Rays, from across the web. The website can be followed on Twitter
