The American League’s best pitcher in May got off to a pretty good start in June.
Rich Hill delivered five shutout innings as the Rays beat the Rangers, 3-0, Saturday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.
The Rays got their first two runs in the opening inning, taking advantage of a shaky start by Rangers lefty Kolby Allard. They scored two runs on his 10th pitch of the day.
Manuel Margot, moved to the leadoff spot to try to spark the offense against left-handers, drew a five-pitch walk. Better, Margot aggressively went from first to third when Yandy Diaz singled hard to center. Even better, Diaz alertly moved up to second as center fielder Adolis Garcia threw to third.
That set up Austin Meadows, the Rays’ top run producer, and he delivered with a two-out single to center. The hit extended Meadows’ hitting streak to nine games, and increased his RBI total to 46, which ranks in the top five in the American League. Meadows has 37 of them in his last 30 games.
Margot added to the lead by homering with one out in the eighth, his fifth of the season.
Hill, the age-defying 41-year-old, went 3-1, 0.78 over six May starts to earn American League Pitcher of the Month honors. He was sharp again Saturday, allowing the Rangers only one walk over the first three innings and two hits total over five, throwing 59 pitches.
With the Rays monitoring his workload, as well as other pitchers (they pushed top starter Tyler Glasnow’s next outing back from Sunday to Tuesday), they decided the five innings were enough.
Ryan Thompson, Jeffrey Springs, Pete Fairbanks and Diego Castillo took it from there as the Rays posted their fifth shutout of the season.
Plus, the Rays played their usual good defense, with third baseman Mike Brosseau, shortstop Taylor Walls, catcher Mike Zunino and right fielder Margot all making key plays.
The win improved the Rays to an American League-best 37-23 through the first 60 games. In comparison, they went an AL-leading 40-20 over the 2020 season that was abbreviated to 60 games due to the coronavirus pandemic.
