TAMPA -- Rockies second baseman Kyle Farmer didn¡¯t wait for the interview request.
¡°Dude, that was the best defensive game I¡¯ve ever been a part of,¡± Farmer said after the Rockies beat the Rays, 2-1, by the glove, and nothing but the glove.
Right fielder Nick Martini has played six Major League seasons with five teams, plus 12 seasons in the Minors and one in Korea. Having been around the world, has he seen a defense so thirsty for the big play?
¡°Not often, honestly ¨C it¡¯s a very athletic team and just a fun defense,¡± said Martini, whose throw to the plate in the third erased Jonathan Aranda.
This was a most-unusual 2-1 victory. It featured two outs at the plate, hard smashes grabbed, patented plays by two-time Gold Glove-winning center fielder Brenton Doyle and 2024 Gold Glove shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, and so much defense manager Bud Black could barely keep up.
¡°I don¡¯t think [left fielder Jordan] Beck had a play that we¡¯d go, wow, but everybody else ¡¡± Black said.
Hey, what about the first game-altering play? Beck fielded Aranda¡¯s double off the wall and made a clean throw to Tovar, whose strike to the plate stopped Junior Caminero from scoring in the first.
¡°A fundamentally sound play ¡ pardon me,¡± said Black, who rated some difficult plays by third baseman Ryan McMahon among his faves.
The Rays¡¯ Taylor Walls ¨C a 2023 Gold Glove finalist who was robbed of a hit and an RBI on Tovar¡¯s double-knee, sliding play in the second ¨C came away impressed. So did Rays manager Kevin Cash, who remarked after that play: ¡°Wallsy got Walls¡¯d.¡±
¡°I'm kind of wowed,¡± Walls said of the Rockies¡¯ defensive clinic. ¡°I don't want it to be taken lightly how impressive of a defensive effort, collectively, as a team, they [had] today.
¡°I wonder if there's been a game where there's been more runs saved collectively as a team than what they did today."
The best way to measure the effectiveness of the Rockies¡¯ defense is to hold starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela¡¯s stats up against Rockies and MLB history.
- Senzatela yielded nine hits and had no strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings, yet no runs. In the four other nine-hit, no-run games in club history, the pitcher lasted at least eight innings.
- The last MLB pitcher to yield nine hits but no runs and record zero strikeouts was the Padres¡¯ Dave Dravecky on June 25, 1986 against the Giants.
- The only other time a pitcher yielded nine hits, no runs and managed no strikeouts in fewer than five innings was nearly 103 years ago. The Cardinals¡¯ spitballer Spittin' Bill Doak did it when he went three innings against the Boston Braves on July 21, 1922.
Senzatela, finally healthy after pitching minimally for two-plus years because of knee and elbow surgeries, thanked his infielders to a man when Black removed him from the game.
¡°They got my back today,¡± Senzatela said.
Senzatela was bailed out multiple times starting with the Beck-Tovar first-inning relay to the plate. Farmer fielded Yandy D¨ªaz¡¯s bases-loaded, two-out smash to end the second, the Martini throw happened in the third, and Doyle made a diving, rolling catch of D¨ªaz¡¯s liner to open the fifth.
Tovar, in Spanish with assistant hitting coach Andy Gonz¨¢lez interpreting, spoke matter-of-factly:
¡°That¡¯s our job as position players to play defense behind any pitcher. Today it was ¡®Senza.¡¯¡±
Black said Senzatela was ¡°against the turnbuckle.¡± Lefty reliever Luis Peralta also wobbled, a balk and a walk in the fifth, but forced a Kameron Misner fly ball to end the inning and receive his first Major League win.
Cash wasn¡¯t going to criticize the punches his team threw at the Rockies. Tampa Bay had the eight hardest-hit balls of the game -- and Colorado turned them into seven outs. The Rays recorded 11 hard-hit outs. They were held to one run or less while collecting 12 hits or more for just the second time in franchise history, with the first coming back on May 29, 2000.
¡°When the defense shows up like that, it can become very challenging,¡± Cash said. ¡°We talk about it all the time: Put pressure on the defense. Today, the defense, they beat us."
Added Walls: ¡°I don't think you can take anything away from us offensively, and I think you have to give a lot of credit to them defensively."
In the eighth with the score 2-1, and Seth Halvorsen pitching, first baseman Michael Toglia went left to grab D¨ªaz¡¯s difficult two-out, two on grounder.
¡°That¡¯s going to be a big part of our identity this year ¨C our defense,¡± Toglia said.