Rays 7, Twins 0: Rays pitch a four hit shutout

You need to score runs to win baseball games. Tonight, the Twins scored 0 runs, and got just 4 hits, so they did not win. This is the kind of analysis you can only get from Twinkie Town.

The game started out competitive, as Louie Varland and Zach Eflin tossed 3 scoreless innings. In the fourth inning, Varland started to run into some trouble. Luke Raley led off with a triple and was brought in with a single from Randy Arozarena. Christian Bethancourt hit a bloop single to center to score Arozarena, then Vidal Brujan laid down a sacrifice bunt for an RBI to make it a 3-0 game.

Raley got to Varland again in the 5th, this time with a 2-run blast to center to increase the lead to 5. In the 7th, Jose Siri hit a solo shot to increase that to 6, and after a walk Varland’s night was over. Arozarena hit a groundout RBI to score the 7th run. I guess the best thing I can say about Varland’s start is that he ate up some innings.

At least it was over quickly.

Studs (?):

Emilio Pagan: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Alex Kirilloff: 1-3, BB

Duds:

Louie Varland: 6.0 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 2 HR

Rest of the lineup: 3-28, BB, 10 K