Chirinos struggled for the Rays./JEFFREY S. KING
Friday, 3 a.m.
Bad pitching. Bad offense. Bad defense.
All in all, it was a bad start to the Rays' plan to close out the pre-All-Star break on a hot streak.
The Rays dropped their eighth game in the last 12, losing a badly played 5-0 game to the Rangers Friday night. The loss left the Rays in a tie with the Rangers for the second wild-card slot in the playoffs.
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Lowe tags out Elvis Andrus./JEFFRY S. KING
So where do you want to start with this debacle?
The pitching? Starter Yonny Chirinos gave up three runs in the second inning, which effectively put the Rays out of the game. Chirinos had pitched well, but he gave up five hits and four walks in his outing.
Adames makes a play from shortstop./JEFFREY S. KING
The offense? The Rays managed just three hits off of Texas pitcher Lance Lynn. It continued a run where Tampa Bay has scuffled to get an offense going.
The defense? You can sum it on one play, a grounder hit to Willy Adames, who had shifted to the right side of the infield. Adames tried to shovel the ball out of his glove, and it arrived far late to get Joey Gallo. Ji-Man Choi then returned the ball to Chirinos, who noticed Nomar Mazara round second too far. Centerfielder Guillermo Heredia snuck in behind Mazara, but Chirinos threw the ball into the outfield, allowing Mazara to score the Rangers' fourth run.
The Rays are now 20-19 at home.
Choi makes a putout at first base./JEFFREY S. KING
Rays starter Yonny Chirinos never seemed to have the dominance he has had in other starts this year.
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"It was an off night," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Give Yonny some credit for getting that deep in the ballgame knowing that our bullpen (was taxed) with what took place the day before. Really appreciate the effort, but he couldn’t get the mechanics in line the first three innings and that’s why we saw the walks.
"There wasn’t a ton of hits – two or three – to get all those runs, but he just couldn’t right himself, and by the time he did, the damage had been done. Appreciate him recognizing the situation. Had to get him out there, extended him beyond 100 pitches, we normally don’t do that very often. Tough night for us offensively.”
The Rays, it seems, will continue to struggle as long as the offense is quiet.
“We need to get the bats going," Cash said. "In all fairness, our pitching has kept us in every game. We have been pitched tough, but our bats — there have been a lot of
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Sadler pitches in relief for Rays./JEFFREY S. KING[/caption]
inconsistencies and the wrong guys have kind of gone quiet at a tough time, but (I’m) confident that they can come out of it. Ultimately, we have to do a better job of scoring runs and finding ways to capitalize when we do get guys on base. Tonight was a little bit different. We didn’t do anything offensively, but we have had over this past road trip, opportunities where we just didn’t get it done with guys on base to take a lead, tie a ballgame up or extend a lead and we didn’t.”
There were reasons, Brandon Lowe said.
"It's hard to pinpoint one thing," Lowe said. "We played five and a half hours yesterday, and we got in a three in at the morning."
The Rays play again today at 4:10 p.m. against the Rangers. Rookie Brendan McKay will pitch against Adrian Simpson of the Rangers.
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