Once gain, Colome gave up the deciding run in the ninth./JEFFREY S. KING
Saturday, 2 a.m.
The season is still early, but some of the Tampa Bay Rays problems are growing old in a hurry.
For the Rays, it was another day, another loss. It was a bullpen that wasn't good enough. It was hitting that didn't show up often enough. It was flubs that keep being repeated.
Sigh.
In the end, the Rays lost 2-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies and saw
Duffy thrown at at second base, which cost the Rays a run./JEFFREY S. KING
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Hechavarria throws a Phillies' batter out./JEFFRY S. KING
their record sink to 3-10. Once again, Alex Colome gave up the winning run. Once again, the bats were useless in a four-hit night.
Colome was pitching the ninth in a 1-1 tie. But he gave up a double to Scott Kingery and, with two outs, a game-losing single to Jorge Alfaro.
“I actually thought (Colome) threw the ball better today," said Rays' manger Kevin Cash. "He mixed his fastball up in the zone a little bit more. Just established the fastball to get some chase. Kingery hits the double and then
Span sneers at his tough night./JEFFREY S. KING
Alfaro finds a hole right there in between Hechavarria and Duffy. All in all, I like how he was attacking in the zone. He just gave it up. There are a lot of other things that led into that loss, but it doesn’t make a ton of sense to say, but I think that was probably a step in the right direction for Alex.”
Cash said it was not time to find another closer
“First and foremost, it would probably be how his command is and like I said, tonight his command was good," Cash said. "Alex has done a lot of good things over the last three years. He’s allowed, just as anybody else in
Faria had his best start of the season./JEFFREY S. KING
that club- house, to go through some rough stretches. To me, this did not come down to Alex Colomé’s performance. It was probably more our lack of offense and a couple of quirky plays that took place.”
The Rays fell to 2-7 in one-run games. The bullpen lost its eighth game of the year.
"We knew coming in, not to beat a dead horse, but we're going to play close ball games," Cash said. "That's the kind of way our team's built. We have to do a better job of finding ways to win those games. … Some of that's probably misfortune, some of that goes to young players, and some of that goes to not executing when we have opportunities to do it."
Cash said the weak-hitting contributed more to the defeat.
“We didn’t capitalize," Cash said. "We couldn’t string any hits together, for sure. (Alvarado) comes in, I think Carlos might have lost the ball in the light, which is unfortunate. You hate to see a really strong performance from Jake Faria end like that, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I was
Kiermaier's slow start (.105) continued./JEFFREY S. KING
happy the way he bounced back. A lot had been talked about, been written about, but he did a nice job of settling in and getting in a groove. We saw the Jake that we saw for multiple outings last year.”
Starter Jake Faria had one of his better games, throwing a no-hitter threw four and leaving with a two-hitter with one out in the sixth.
What did Faria learn?
"That it’s in there," Faria said. "That it didn’t disappear so that’s good to have a game like that.”
"Honestly, I think it was my mentality. Went out there and tried to have fun. Tried to not think about it too much. I think that helped free up a lot of things. Yeah, this is a step in the right direction. Disappointed to lose a very close ballgame, but big step compared to last game. Just move forward from here.”
The Rays had a chance to take a lead in the fourth inning when Aaron Altherr dropped a fly ball in right. He recovered and threw out Matt Duffy at second just before Joey Wendel crossed the plate.
“The first part of play when nobody is watching is usually where the mistake happens," Duffy said. "For me, it’s just getting down the line better. There is no play at second base, really. Once I get to that point, take a peek and get in a rundown.”
The Rays play Philadelphia again today at 6:10 p.m. Tampa Bay's Chris Archer pitches against Jake Arrieta.
Cash makes a point with the umpires./JEFFREY S. KING
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