Cal Quantrill Compares Rays, Brewers After Rangers Shutout

ARLINGTON, Texas — Cal Quantrill said the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays are both difficult to strike out from top to bottom in the order.

Quantrill made the comparison after holding the Rays to 2 singles and 2 walks over 7 scoreless innings in a 6-0 Texas Rangers win on Thursday night at Globe Life Field.

“They’re both really good teams, right? It’s the best team in the NL followed by the best team in the [AL]. They play a good brand of ball. It’s hard to strike them out top to bottom in the order,” Quantrill said. “I think we had a good plan against Milwaukee, a couple bad pitches in the first. This time I think we really came out of the chute hot and were able to kind of continue it all the way through.”

“That being said, every team’s a little bit different,” Quantrill continued. “But yeah, I think that we’re well aware of the style of ball and the level of baseball quality that we need to play at to try and beat a team like this. And I thought we did a good job.”

Cal Quantrill’s Six Days Against the Division Leaders

Quantrill struck out 5. He entered the night with 68 strikeouts over 89 2/3 innings and a 6.8 strikeouts-per-nine rate.

The Rangers played at Milwaukee from Aug. 28 to Aug. 30, losing 6-1 and 5-3 before a 7-4 win in the finale. Texas then returned home and split four games with the Athletics before Tampa Bay arrived.

What The Tampa Bay Rays Bring Offensively

Tampa Bay is 83-57 and leads the American League East by 3 games over the New York Yankees. The Rays lead the majors in team batting average at .261. They are 9-11 since Aug. 14 after an 18-4 stretch.

Tampa Bay scores 4.5 runs per game, 15th in the majors, and has scored 628 runs. The Rays have hit 144 home runs, which ranks 23rd.

Texas held Tampa Bay to three hits and matched the Rays’ season low. It was the 13th shutout of the season for the Rangers and the eighth time Tampa Bay has been blanked.

Jakob Junis and Chase Silseth finished the combined three-hitter behind Quantrill. Junis has a 2.72 ERA over 43 appearances and Silseth has a 3.55 ERA over 15.

Cal Quantrill’s Run Since Late July

Since July 28 at Tampa Bay, Quantrill has a 1.25 ERA over 8 outings, 7 of them starts. His ERA in 7 career starts against the Rays is 1.77. He improved to 7-5 on the season.

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Quantrill’s fastball worked at the top of the zone and that he threw the split off of it.

Quantrill was named the Rangers’ Player of the Month for August after posting a 1.45 ERA over 31 innings. It was his first monthly award with Texas.

The Rays have lost 10 straight games in Arlington. The last Tampa Bay win at Globe Life Field came on June 2, 2022.

Texas is 70-71, one-half game behind Cleveland for the American League’s final wild-card spot and 2 games behind first-place Houston in the West.

The teams meet again Friday at 7:05 p.m. CT at Globe Life Field on Rangers Sports Network. Right-hander Trevor Williams is the Rangers’ scheduled opener, opposite Rays right-hander Nick Martinez (13-4, 2.99 ERA).