Rays throw, run themselves out of game vs. Jays

Mallex Smith is out at home after being caught stealing./CARMEN MANDATO

Monday, 3 a.m.

You can blame Alex Colome's arm. After all, it's the arm that uncorked a wild pitch, leading the go-ahead run by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Or you can blame the legs of Carlos Gomes and Mallex Smith, who helped to run the Rays out of the game Sunday afternoon.

Either way, a .500 record remains elusive to the Rays.

Tampa Bay dropped a 2-1 decision to the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday

Gomez also was caught stealing in the third./CARMEN MANDATO

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Archer had one of his bettor performances./CARMEN MANDATO

evening, failing for the third time this season to reach .500. This one in particular hurt, because this is a Rays' team that talks often about its ability to do the little things. Sunday afternoon, it did not.

Start with Colome, who had been on a tear. His last seven games had been sharp, and the Rays had hopes that he was climbing out of his early season disappointment.

Colome's wild pitch brought home the winning run./CARMEN MANDATO

But Sunday, one day after his five-out save against the Blue Jays, he wasn't as steady. He gave up a leadoff down to Kevin Pillar, who moved to third on a groundout. Colome then threw a wild pitch that allowed Pillar to score.

It was Colome's fourth loss, the most among major league relievers.

"That's probably the last thing I thought was going to happen," Cash said. "I didn't think we'd give up a wild pitch by Colome."

Yes, that was bad.

Duffy had two hits for the Rays./CARMEN MANDATO

But was the third inning worse? In that inning, Gomez singled, putting runners on first-and-third with one out. And the Rays promptly ran themselves out of the inning.

Gomez was caught stealing (a safe call was overruled by replay). If that wasn't enough, Smith was out of the plate trying to steal home. A potential big third inning ended up being scoreless. It was the third time this season Smith has been out trying to steal home.

Span strikes out in the third inning./CARMEN MANDATO

"Yeah, we did a lot of 'what not to do on the bases' today," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "There were a handful of things that probably prevented us from scoring runs."

Cash added that Smith was going on his own.

The shame of the loss is that it wasted on of pitcher Chris Archer's better efforts. Archer went seven innings and allowed only five hits and one earned run, but left with a no-decision.

The Rays are off today. They play Atlanta Tuesday night when Blake Snell pitches against Sean Newcomb. Game time is 7:10 p.m.

Cash saw his team lose not doing the small things./CARMEN MANDATO