Drew Rasmussen, small-ball offense lead Rays past Royals again

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Jun 25, 2025

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Drew Rasmussen continued an impressive run that could lead him to the All-Star Game, and the Rays used a small ball offense that included two squeeze bunts to score a 3-0 win over the Royals on Wednesday night.

Rasmussen allowed just two hits and two walks over five scoreless innings, improving his record to 7-5 and lowering his ERA to 2.45, eighth-best in the majors.

Over his last eight starts, Rasmussen is 6-1 with a 1.62 ERA. Pretty good for a guy who returned this season to starting — having been sidelined in May 2023 with an injury that led to a third major elbow surgery — and then rejoined the team last August as a two-inning max reliever.

The Rays moved to a season-high 10 games over .500 at 45-35, improving their majors-best record since May 9 to 29-14 and since May 20 to 24-9. They won their eighth series of the last 11, tying two others. And they stayed within a game of the American League East-leading Yankees, who won at Cincinnati.

The Rays took a 3-0 lead in the second inning by playing small ball and taking advantage of Kansas City misplays.

The rally started with one-out singles by Christopher Morel and Josh Lowe, putting runners on the corners against Michael Wacha.

Jose Caballero then dropped a bunt perfectly placed toward first base. Morel scored from third, Lowe went to second and Caballero ran by first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino to be safe at first.

Speedy Chandler Simpson then grounded a ball to the left side and beat it out for an infield single that loaded the bases.

Wacha then threw a wild pitch, allowing Lowe to score and Caballero to move to third. That mattered when Danny Jansen, who hadn’t had a sacrifice bunt since 2021, squared around and pushed the ball toward first, scoring Caballero.

Kevin Kelly, Garrett Cleavinger, Edwin Uceta and Pete Fairbanks — logging his 14th save — teamed for the final 12 outs.

Yandy Diaz led off with a single to extend his hitting streak to 15 games, the longest such run in the majors. Brandon Lowe extended his hitting streak to 12 games, Jonathan Aranda his to 10.