Pagan gave up the tying homer with two out in the ninth./CHUCK MULLER
Sunday, 3 a.m.
Perhaps their bats are superfluous. Perhaps they are just fashion for the photographers.
These days, the sticks of the Tampa Bay Rays are fairly useless otherwise.
The Rays lost once again Saturday, their fifth straight, in a 2-1, 11-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox. They are now 1-7 in extra inning games at Tropicana Field.
The Rays were one out away from 1-0 win, but Emilio Pagan blew his sixth save of the season when he gave up a home run to James McCann to tie the game. The White Sox won it in 11 when Yoan Moncada scored from first on a hit-and-run play that traveled slowly through the infield.
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Kolarek took the loss for the Rays./CHUCK MULLER
The Rays were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. During their 5-game losing streak, they are batting .063 (two-for-32) with runners in scoring position and have left 37 runners on base. In their last 9 games, they are batting .088 (five-for-57) with runners in scoring position.
Yandy Diaz went 0-for-5 Saturday./CHUCK MULLER
“It’s very frustrating," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Look, our pitchers tonight gave us everything they could. You feel bad for Emilio. It looked like he made a pretty quality pitch. McCann, big, strong guy, went out and got it and knocked it out of the ballpark.
"We didn’t make the adjustments throughout the game we needed to off (Lucas) Giolito. Although he was really, really good and their bullpen came in and did a really good job, you’d like to think we’ve got guys that are equipped to go in there and compete and get something done with runners in scoring position. We just didn’t.”
The Rays have fallen behind in the AL wild-card race. They're chasing both
Drake is fired up after getting out of the 8th inning./CHUCK MULLER
Cleveland and Oakland. Saturday, they scored only once -- on a long home run by Avi Garcia -- despite putting the leadoff runner on in seven straight innings
“It’s tough," Cash said. "You can’t deny that. You’ve got to stay confident and stay positive as well as we can. Do the little things here and there. Move a ball. The strikeouts, they sting probably the most. We’ve got to stop striking out in those situations. Put a little pressure on the defense. I think we’re letting the umpire decide some things. Not that the umpire’s making bad calls; he’s making fine calls. But it’s going into the umpire’s hands late in the count. That’s not what good offenses do.”
The Rays got a good start from Ryan Yarbrough, who went six innings and gave up just two hits.
Meadows picks up two hits in Saturday night's loss./CHUCK MULLER
"Just trying to mix some speeds, really keep guys off balance and try to keep them uncomfortable in the batter’s box," Yarbrough said. "When you can do that over the course of six innings and give your team a chance to go out and win a ballgame, you can be pretty happy about that.
“Even before (being optioned), I felt like I was piecing some things together. It’s just a matter of getting some reps and getting into a groove. Just trying to continue that and obviously really happy about how today went. Hopefully, I can continue to carry it over to the next outing and for the rest of the year.”
Pagan seemed miffed after the game.
“Good pitch," Pagan said of the ball he threw to McCann. "That’s just the way things are going for us right now. That’s our scouting report on McCann. Breakers at the
Roe has an ERA of more than 5.00 this season./CHUCK MULLER
bottom of the zone and fastballs up. I got a really bad swing on a breaker down so I went back to it and not that great of a swing but he got the barrel to it. Strong guy having a good year. Ultra frustrating. I’m happy with the pitch, it just didn’t go our way again. Like I said, we can’t keep using the same excuse. We’ve got to find a way to come out on top.”
“It’s baseball. We’ve just got to keep focused, keep working, be posi-
tive. Come to the ballpark like we always do, trying to win every single game and trying to do our best every single day. In baseball, everything happens. Good things, bad things. We’ve just got to keep working and be focused.”
The Rays close out their series against the White Sox today at 1:05 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Blake Snell pitches for the Rays against Dylan Cease.
Kiermaier left the game with a thumb injury./CHUCK MULLER
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