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Sizzling Jose wins 6th straight as Marlins top Rays
- Updated: May 26, 2016
ST. PETERSBURG — Jose Fernandez’s struggles in the ballpark he came to as a high schooler are a thing of the past. Fernandez struck out 12 batters and allowed only one run in Miami’s 9-1 win over Tampa Bay on Thursday at Tropicana Field.
The Rays’ offense was stagnant all afternoon. A Brandon Guyer homer to left in the third was the only run that Tampa Bay scored. It was also the team’s only extra-base hit.
Fernandez threw 111 pitches and nine of his 12 strikeouts were swinging. On the day, the Rays struck out 16 times.
“I think this is a tough place for him, just because of the emotion of Tampa and the whole thing,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of Fernandez. “So this is a place where he has to kind of pull the reins back a little bit, and that’s what we’ve been seeing the last, probably, three, four outings — him being able to take the foot off the gas a little bit as [opposed to] having to be always at full speed.”
Drew Smyly gave the Rays six innings, but he was done in early by a pair of two-out, two-run homers. Adeiny Hechavarria blasted his to left in the second and Chris Johnson connected with one to left in the third. Both came on hanging breaking balls.
“It felt like today I had pretty good command,” Smyly said. “For the most part, I thought my stuff was better than it has been in a while. Just a couple of bad pitches, just a couple of curveballs that stayed up. Not in the location I wanted them.”
The Marlins added insurance runs when they started the eighth with five straight hits to open up an an 8-1 lead.
The Rays lead the all-time Citrus Series with the Marlins, 52-51.
MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDFine Fernandez: The talented right-hander, who attended Braulio Alonso High in Tampa, put on a show to tame the Rays’ bats. Fernandez allowed one run and six hits with 12 strikeouts in seven innings. He struck out six of his last seven batters faced and eight of the final 10. It marked his first victory at Tropicana Field after going 0-2 with a …
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