Rays show Guardians’ Travis Bazzana ultimate sign of respect in MLB debut

While Travis Bazzana didn’t record his first career MLB hit in his debut on Tuesday night, he still reached base twice via walks. 

His first walk came in the eighth inning after a six-pitch battle against Rays starter Nick Martinez. It was the kind of productive at-bat that he became known for in the minors. 

But his second walk was arguably even more impressive — even if it involved less work. 

An inning later, Bazzana stepped up to the plate with two outs and Angel Martínez at second base. And, after taking two pitches outside, the Rays elected to intentionally walk Bazzana. 

That’s right. With the game on the line, the Rays decided they’d rather put the winning run on base as opposed to facing off against a guy who was in the minors 24 hours before. 

Even though that move ended up working out for the Rays after Cole Sulser managed to strike out George Valera to secure Tampa’s 1-0 win, it was still an impressive feat that shows widely-regarded Bazzana is as a prospect. 

Travis Bazzana had a productive MLB debut on Tuesday 

Bazzana finished the night 0-for-2 with those two walks while handling all four of the balls that were hit his way on defense  

He also had a chance to record the first signature moment of his career with that eighth inning at-bat, but the Rays ruined any chance of it happening by giving him the intentional free pass. 

The bad news for the Guardians is that his addition to the lineup didn’t translate to any kind of offensive production. While adding Bazzana to the lineup is a great step in the right direction, it doesn’t get rid of the Guardians’ obvious flaws around him. 

Not only did the Guardians only record four hits as a team, but Martínez’s ninth inning single was their only extra-base hit. The Rays pitching is good, but it’s not that good. 

Speaking of pitching, the Guardians’ recorded one of their best team pitching performances in the loss. Tanner Bibee set the tone by allowing just one run over five solid innings before giving way to Tim Herrin. 

After Herrin pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings, Connor Brogdon and Peyton Pallette covered the final 2 1/3 innings and allowed just one baserunner. 

But all that came in a loss thanks to Cleveland’s inability to get anything going on offense, which is starting to become a distressing trend. The Guardians have gone 2-6 over their past eight games while being very boom or bust. They scored eight runs in both of their wins, but scored three runs or fewer in all of their losses. 

That could change in the near future thanks to Bazzana being in the lineup (so long as opposing pitchers actually pitch to him).

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow