As Yandy Diaz emerges from slow start, Rays try to take series from Padres

One of the Tampa Bay Rays’ offensive mainstays for the past six years has started to hit.

Not surprisingly, Tampa Bay is starting to win games.

Yandy Diaz has seven hits and five RBIs in the past three games, all Rays victories, and will try to keep his roll going on Saturday when they go for a series win against the Padres in San Diego.

After logging three-hit games on Wednesday and Thursday night in wins at Arizona, Diaz managed a hit and the game’s only RBI Friday night in a 1-0 blanking of San Diego. His sacrifice fly to deep left with the bases loaded in the top of the third inning scored Taylor Walls.

Diaz was hitting just .213 after going 0-for-4 Tuesday night in Arizona and hitting into a crucial double play that killed an eighth-inning rally with the team trailing just 3-1. His batting average is now .250.

“If we could hand-pick somebody to come up, that’s him,” said Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash of Diaz after Tuesday night’s loss. “And we would do it again tomorrow night, and have confidence that he’ll get it going.”

Next up for the Rays to get going is second baseman Brandon Lowe, who’s hitting only .209 after going 1-for-4 on Friday night. Lowe hasn’t collected an extra-base hit since he slugged a home run at Texas on April 5 but has hit the ball harder than his average suggests.

“I’ve caught a really bad case of the at-’em balls,” Lowe said.

The next potential opponent for Lowe is Dylan Cease (1-1, 6.04 ERA), the scheduled starter for San Diego. Cease allowed two runs on six hits and a walk Sunday night over five innings of his team’s 3-2 win in Houston, striking out six, though he didn’t figure in the decision. He’s 1-2 with a 5.40 earned run average in six career starts against Tampa Bay.

The Rays will hunt a series win behind Ryan Pepiot (1-3, 4.82), who last worked on Sunday and took a 4-0 loss to the New York Yankees. He gave up six hits and three runs over six innings, walking one and striking out seven. Pepiot is 0-1 with a 5.73 ERA in three career games, two of them starts, against the Padres.

But he might be catching them at the right time. San Diego has lost five of its past seven games and hasn’t scored a run in 25 innings, dating back to Tuesday night’s 2-0 win in Detroit. The Padres are feeling the effects of playing without regulars Jackson Merrill (hamstring), Jake Cronenworth (broken rib) and Luis Arraez (concussion).

Manager Mike Shildt said Merrill and reserve outfielder Brandon Lockridge, also out with a hamstring injury, are getting closer to returning. Arraez is still working his way “back to full activity,” according to Shildt. Cronenworth is likely to return in early- to mid-May though his rib might not be fully healed.

San Diego also sent No. 5 starter Kyle Hart down to Triple-A El Paso and cut its rotation to four until the fifth starter is needed again during a May series at New York against the Yankees.

“We wanted to make sure we were taking advantage of our off-days to rest our starters,” Shildt said. “Nobody’s going to get compromised.”

–Field Level Media