Still, carrying an entire baseball team is impressive.
Diaz drove in two of the Rays' three runs in a 3-1 win over the Boston Red Sox at Tropicana Field Monday night.
Diaz, hitting a league-leading .325 on the season, led off the game with his 12th home run, a 390-foot shot to left field. He hit a deep sacrifice fly in the eighth for an insurance run.
The Rays' other run came on a single by Jonathan Aranda, who was stuck in a 2-for-24 slump. The Rays left 11 men on base and were just one-for-nine with runners in scoring position.
The Rays' pitching was a surprise. Ian Seymour started and allowed just one hit and one run through four innings. Casey Legumina got the win. Bryan Baker earned his 17th save.
The Red Sox had just four hits against six Rays' pitchers.
The Rays and Red Sox play the second game of their three-game series tonight at Tropicana Field at 6:40 p.m. Nick Martinez will start for the Rays against Payton Tolle.
Jax threw five shutout innings in loss./KIM HUKARI
Monday, 4 a.m.
You know a team is going badly when it keeps getting mugged on Easy Street.
The Tampa Bay Rays continued its struggles against losing teams Sunday afternoon, losing a 4-1 game to the Florida Marlins at loanDepot Park.
In their last four series, the Rays have been swept by Baltimore (playing .477 baseball), lost one of three games to the Angels (.369), been swept by Detroit (.400) and lost two of three to the Marlins (.462).
The Rays have now lost nine of their last 13 games. They are in a tie with the Yankees for the lead in the AL East after leading by 5 1/2 games on May 22.
The Rays managed just six hits in their loss. In their last two games, the Rays have gone three-for-14 with men in scoring position.
Rays' starter Griffin Jax threw a three-hit shutout for five innings. Tampa Bay squandered that, however, when relievers Garrett Cleavinger and Steven Matz gave up four runs in the sixth and seventh to allow the game to slip away. Three of the four runs reached base on walks.
In all, the Rays walked six and allowed four steals.
The key play was a two-base error by catcher Hunter Feduccia that allowed the third and fourth runs to score.
Yandy Diaz drove in the Rays' only run with a single in the third inning.
The Rays return to Tropicana Field tonight at 6:40 p.m. to face the Boston Red Sox. The Rays haven't announced a starter. Connelly Early (5-3) will start for the Red Sox.
The Tampa Bay Rays continue to try to get a foothold in order to turn around a season that has gotten off-track.
One day after snapping their three-game losing streak (and a span where they lost eight of 10), the Rays' bats froze in a 4-3 loss to the Florida Marlins and loanDepot Park.
The Rays managed just five hits, and were two-for-10 with runners in scoring position. They didn't get a hit until the sixth inning, and they didn't score a run until the eighth against seven Marlins' pitchers.
The Rays finally made it close in the eighth, scoring two runs on a wild pitch by former Ray Pete Fairbanks and a single by Yandy Diaz, his second RBI of the day. The Rays' final out came on a strikeout by Junior Caminero with two runners on.
Rays' starter Shane McClanahan started strong, but he gave up four earned runs in the fifth and sixth innings. He falls to 6-3 on the season.
The Rays and Marlins close out their three-game series today at loanDepot Park at 1:40 p.m. Griffin Jax will pitch for the Rays against Sandy Alcantara.
Turns out, the Rescue Ranger of the Tampa Bay Rays wears a red beard.
Dennis Rasmussen brought relief to the slumping Tampa Bay Rays, pitching a one-hit gem (seven innings) in a 6-0 shutout over the Florida Marlins. Rasmussen allowed only a second-inning single to Javier Sanoja. He struck out nine.
Perhaps more important, Rasmussen led the Rays to a win. After going 2-8 in their previous 10 games, that was a relief.
Caminero reached base five times./TIM WIRT
It also allowed the Rays to lengthen their lead in the AL East to a game and a half.
The Rays relied on familiar faces for their offense. Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz each had three hits (Caminero also had two walks). Ryan Vilade also had two hits.
Richie Palacios had a two-run triple as the Rays took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Cedric Mullins had a home run.
The Rays and Marlins play again today at 4 p.m. at loanDepot Park. Shane McClanahan will start for the Rays against a yet-to-be named starter for the Marlins.
Thursday, 4 a.m. The days go by, and they sink lower. They look worse and worse. The beatings get more and more convincing. They are the Tampa Bay Rays, and they are playing dreadful baseball. The Rays were clobbered again Wednesday afternoon. Once again, it was an awful Detroit team that laid an awful beating […]
Wednesday, 4 a.m. Be careful when walking around the American League East these days. A Tampa Bay Ray might fall on you. The Rays, currently playing as poorly has any team in baseball, were jolted again Tuesday night at Tropicana Field. They lost 8-0 to the dreadful Detroit Tigers, only the third time they have […]
Tuesday, 4 a.m. How pronounced is the recent slump by the Tampa Bay Rays? These days, they seem to be struggling against last-place teams. The Rays made the woeful Detroit Tigers — who came in with a record that was tied for the worst in baseball — look like a World Series contender in Monday […]
Monday, 4 a.m. The Tampa Bay Rays didn’t exactly sprint to their latest series win. They just walked. The Rays walked nine times, two of them with the bases loaded, to capture a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels Sunday. It was their sixth straight series win at Tropicana Field. The Rays have walked […]
Sunday, 4 a.m. Evidently, the skid is not over yet. One day after ending a season-worst four-game losing streak, the Tampa Bay Rays returned to sloppy baseball again Saturday afternoon. The Rays gave up four runs in the first and six in the ninth, going on to absorb a 14-3 pummeling at the hands of […]
Saturday, 4 a.m. It was the seventh inning when the ugly came off of the baseball for the Tampa Bay Rays. They were down 2-1, to a mediocre Angels’ team from Los Angeles. Home field didn’t seem to be helping them. A fifth straight loss was possible. And then the Rays’ woke up. The Rays […]
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About Gary Shelton
• No one covers Tampa Bay like Gary Shelton.
• No one has seen as many moments, as many athletes, as many coaches as he has over the last quarter of a century.
• No one has won more awards, including two national Associated Press Sports Editors Best Columnist awards and eight top 10 finishes. He also just received his sixth Sportswriter of the Year award for Florida by the NSSA.
• No one has seen more big events, including 29 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics and 11 Final Fours. Gary still goes into the locker rooms to obtain his stories.
• No one has made you angrier, or laugh louder, or think harder about what he has written.
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