Brandon Lowe hit a three-run homer for the Rays./CHUCK MULLER
Monday, 4 a.m.
A game like this ought to come with a nuclear winter.
A game like this ought to come with a mushroom crowd. With a Hazmat suit. With a media guide for the 2002 season. With ointment.
The Rays suffered their biggest meltdown of the season Sunday, watching a 5-3 lead turn into a 13-5 loss. Along the way, the Rays gave up seven runs in the sixth inning on four hits and five walks (two with the bases loaded). In all, the Rays gave up nine walks on the afternoon.
"You're not going to win when you walk nine guys," Rays' manager Kevin Cash sad.
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Castillo had a rough afternoon for the Rays./JEFFREY S. KING
If it had been a fight, they would have stopped it. If it had been a horse, they would have shot it. It was a vile and ugly way for a team to lose first place in the division.
Charlie Morton pitched for the Rays but couldn't get past the fourth inning.
"I don’t think he could get in synch with anything," Cash said. "He had one inning where it looked like there was a chance for him to turn in the right direction, and then it wasn’t happening. The breaking ball was in and out of the zone. He battled. It was one of those days where I don’t think he had it."
The Rays took a 5-3 lead on a three-run homer by Brandon Lowe (Kevin Kiermaier and Willy Adames each had solo shots. But the walks kept the Yankees in the game. In the seventh, neither Diego Castillo (who had nine straight scoreless appearances) nor Ryan Stanek could stop the Yankees.
The Rays now return home to Tropicana Field. They will play the Dodgers Tuesday night, with an opener pitching against Clayton Kershaw of Los Angeles.
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