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Luke Raley, Jose Siri homer as Rays blank Twins

The Rays’ four-game home run drought was dramatically snapped by the pair to back up a stellar start by Zach Eflin.
Rays right fielder Luke Raley (55) watches left fielder Randy Arozarena (56) at bat after hitting a triple in the fourth inning of Tuesday night's 7-0 rout of the Twins. [ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]
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Updated Jun 7, 2023

ST. PETERSBURG — Luke Raley is making his mark, literally, on Tropicana Field and with the Rays this season.

Tuesday night, he led the offense with the second-longest home run of his career as Tampa Bay beat the Twins 7-0 in front of a crowd of 14.689.

Zach Eflin pitched 6⅔ scoreless innings as the Rays (44-19) posted their ninth shutout of the season — tied with the Blue Jays for the most in the big leagues. Jose Siri hit his 11th home run — a career-long 457-foot shot to left-center field — in the seventh inning.

With Raley’s 450-foot blast in the fifth inning, the Rays not only snapped a season-high four-game home run drought, but marked the first time that more than one Tampa Bay player has hit a homer of at least 450 feet in the same game.

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“It’s so much fun watching all these guys play, but Luke in particular — he’s a 6-foot-5 guy that just runs faster than you can even imagine,” said Eflin, who struck out nine and walked one.

“And he put a dent in the wall in center field, so it’s it’s really fun watching all these guys play and they had my back tonight. I was able to kind of go out freely and and attack guys and ultimately get the team a win.”

Rays starting pitcher Zach Eflin (24) worked 6 2/3 scoreless innings in Tuesday night's rout of the Twins, pushing Tampa Bay 25 games over .500.
[ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]

Raley’s laser line-drive home run actually did leave a dent, in the batter’s eye in dead center field.

“Did it actually,” Raley asked with a laugh. “I knew I hit it well. Center field here can be kind of tricky. You can hit a ball well, and it does not go out there. So I hit it and I was like, ‘I hit that well, but I’ve got to get going just in case.’”

It’s not a fluke.

Raley spent his entire offseason reworking his swing. He eliminated a leg kick and moved his hands into a position closer to his body, which allows him to get a better launch angle. He worked alone back in his native Ohio.

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“I totally readjusted my swing in the offseason,” Raley said. “It was something that we had talked about last year. It was just too big of an adjustment to make mid-season. So we decided that going into the offseason, we had a plan and I just went and basically did it.

“Did it by myself, working out and doing those things. I obviously had a plan with (hitting coach Chad Mottola) and the other hitting coaches. ... It was a comfort thing for me. I kind of went in and knew what I needed to do or what I wanted to do, and I just did it.”

The 28-year old Raley, who had a total of 144 big league plate appearances before this season, has remade himself into a big part of the Rays offense. Over his last 23 games, he’s hitting .323, with four home runs, a triple and 18 runs scored.

In 47 games this season, Raley is hitting .261 with a .775 OPS, 11 home runs, nine doubles and 24 RBI.

“It was just a comfort thing. And I kind of did what I wanted to do and what I had done growing up,” he said. “And it’s been working.”

He hit his first career big-league triple on a ball that Max Kepler misjudged in the right-field corner to lead off the fourth, and scored on Randy Arozarena’s single. Christian Bethancourt later singled in Arozarena, who also brought in a run on a groundout in the seventh. Vidal Brujan brought in Harold Ramirez on a sacrifice bunt for Tampa Bay’s third run of the fourth.

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Rays right fielder Luke Raley (55) smiles during a radio interview in the dugout after Tuesday night's 7-0 victory against the Twins at Tropicana Field. Raley homered and tripled in the win.
[ IVY CEBALLO | Times ]

Raley, hitting in the No. 3 spot Tuesday night, may be hot right now, but Rays manager Kevin Cash sees the bigger picture of a player coming into his own.

“I feel like he’s had a good season. I mean, I know that maybe he’s gotten hot as of late,” Cash said.

“He’s just playing with so much confidence and understanding, I think, a little bit better what pitchers are trying to do. I mean, (Monday) he comes up to (hit) the home run that got robbed — that was a first-pitch breaking ball. I don’t know if he’s doing that a month ago, being in a mindset that he’s aware and he’s willing to take a shot knowing the guy’s trying to get ahead.

“So it seems like he’s probably leading it, but there’s a lot of guys that are going up with a very good approach at the plate and having a lot of success.”

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