Renfroe homers twice, Rays fan 19 Braves in 14-5 romp
Hunter Renfroe homered twice and Tampa Bay pitchers set a team nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts in the Rays’ 14-5 romp over the Atlanta Braves on Monday night at St. Petersburg, Fla.
Tyler Glasnow struck out nine and allowed one hit over four innings in first start after missing part of summer camp with the Rays after testing positive for the coronavirus.
Diego Castillo (1-0) struck out two in a 10-pitch fifth and Jalen Beeks fanned seven over his three innings.
Jose Martinez and Yoshi Tsutsugo drew consecutive one-out walks from Mike Foltynewicz (0-1) to start an eight-run fourth inning that gave Tampa Bay a 9-1 lead. Renfroe then hit a towering homer to deep left center and Joey Wendle homered on the next pitch.
Renfroe got his 11th career multihomer game with a solo shot in the fifth off Touki Toussaint.
Dansby Swanson and Matt Adams homered for the Braves. Swanson tied a careerhigh with five RBIs and stopped a 41-game homerless streak in Atlanta’s 14-1 win Sunday night over the New York Mets. PADRES 6, DIAMONDBACKS 2 >> Fernando Tatis Jr. raced around the bases on a threerun triple that highlighted a five-run rally and Trent Grisham hit his first home run for San Diego, which beat Arizona to take three of four games in their opening series.
The Padres, who feel they’re built for success in this pandemic-shortened 60-game season, outscored the Diamondbacks 21-9 in the four games.
San Diego hasn’t been to the playoffs since winning consecutive NL West titles in 2005-06. It hasn’t had a winning season since 2010.
The Padres scored five runs in the fourth inning before Luke Weaver (0-1) recorded an out.
The highlight was Tatis hitting a ball to left-center that rolled to the wall, bringing in three runs to give San Diego a 6-2 lead. Tatis dove into third headfirst and his helmet went flying.
BLUE JAYS 4, NATIONALS 1 >> Teoscar Hernández hit two of Toronto’s four solo homers off Aníbal Sánchez to account for all the Blue Jays’ scoring in a 4-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Monday night.
Rowdy Tellez and Danny Jansen also went deep for the Blue Jays, who were without two key players. Closer Ken Giles went on the injured list Monday, and shortstop Bo Bichette was scratched from the lineup about 15 minutes before the first pitch with a tight left hamstring.
Manager Charlie Montoyo’s team already had to deal with the inconvenience of not being allowed to host any 2020 games in Toronto. Indeed, the Blue Jays’ first two “home” games of this pandemic-altered season will be played in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday while they wait for Buffalo’s minor league park to be prepped for them.