The Tampa Bay Rays will look to sweep the first half of their six-game homestand when they face the offensively-starved San Francisco Giants in the series finale Sunday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Manager Kevin Cash’s club checked off a box in Saturday’s 5-1 win over the National League West club, joining the New York Yankees as the second American League squad to reach 20 wins.
While the Yankees have 22 and are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Rays in the AL East, Tampa Bay is playing impressive baseball and is 15-5 in its last 20 outings.
Cash gives much of the credit to the defense, which has had a Gold Glove series so far.
In the middle game’s 5-1 victory, center fielder Cedric Mullins and right fielder Jonny DeLuca each robbed Jung Hoo Lee of hits with diving catches, preventing productive innings.
“I think that’s what makes us good,” said Cash of the glove work. “There were some big double plays turned (Friday). Just really encouraged by the overall defense.”
It helped Tampa Bay finally win a series against an NL team this season: They went 0-for-5 in dropping every series against all five NL Central clubs.
Rays hurler Steven Matz (4-1, 4.31 ERA) will take the hill for the seventh time and look to follow up on a strong win his most recent time out as the Rays topped the Cleveland Guardians 3-2 on Monday.
The left-hander is 1-2 with a 4.64 ERA in nine games (six starts) against the Giants.
Tampa Bay’s staff received a major boost Saturday when the organization activated lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger from the 15-day injured list after landing there with right calf tightness. He pitched a scoreless eighth.
San Francisco’s offense has managed just one run and 13 hits in its two setbacks in Florida.
The Giants went 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position in the series opener and 1-for-3 on Saturday. Only Rafael Devers’ RBI double that was in left fielder Chandler Simpson’s glove before he crashed into the wall and dropped it prevented a second shutout.
“With all due respect, I think that (urgency) has been going on, whether it just be conversations that are behind the scenes, so it doesn’t leak out as much or the vibe isn’t there as much to the whole group,” said manager Tony Vitello. “It’s a new month, a new series and (we’re) just trying to make sure the environment is as positive and fresh as it can be.
“It has certainly been a challenge.”
In the finale, the visitors will go to Tyler Mahle (1-4, 5.87) in the right-hander’s seventh start of a 2026 that has not gone well.
Over his five April starts, Mahle has been completely hit or miss.
Three of them have featured stints surrendering five earned runs or more. The other two were scoreless efforts against the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The showing versus the archrival Dodgers — three hits allowed in a 3-0 win on April 22 — gave the pitcher his lone victory thus far.
The Giants are still missing Harrison Bader (left hamstring strain), but the veteran outfielder has recently begun a baserunning program.
He has battled the hamstring issue since spring training and hit .115 in 15 games.
–Field Level Media
