Glasnow had his worst night as a Ray./JEFFREY S. KING
Thursday, 4 a.m.
The higher a team climbs, the further it has to fall.
Also, the more it hurts when it lands.
Ask the Tampa Bay Rays, who came into Wednesday night's game red hot with four straight wins and a record that had climbed to 12 over .500. In particular, the Rays had pushed around the Toronto Blue Jays like a backyard bully.
Well, guess what?
The Blue Jays came back with a 10-3 win, scoring seven runs off Tyler Glasnow in the top of the first inning. For the night, Toronto had 16 hits after getting five or less in seven straight games.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!
Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
Kiermaier homered twice for the Rays./JEFFREY S. KING
Glasnow, who had been impressive in spots since being obtained in a trade (Chris Archer) from Pittsburgh, was clobbered in this one. He got only two outs for the night and gave up seven runs on five hits, two walks and two wild pitches.
Rays' manager Kevin Cash said the problem was Glasnow's secondary pitches.
Adames had two hits for the Rays.//JEFFREY S. KING
"That’s what I saw," Cash said. "He wasn’t able to land his breaking ball. That was probably the difference. I think the Blue Jays' lineup kind of realized that and got really fastball-hunting and didn’t miss. Tyler will bounce back. He’s put a nice string . Today was not his day. A lot of that was that he didn't have the offspeed pitch to complement the fastball."
Coming into the game, the Rays had won nine of 11 against Toronto. Their pitchers had a 1.47 ERA and Jays' batters were hitting only .169. But the Jays made up for some of it in the win. The top four batters in their lineup had nine hits; the top four in the Rays' line had none.
Devon Travis, Kendrys Morales and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. all had three hits.
"I just wasn’t able to land (offspeed pitches) for strikes," Glasnow said. "The swing and miss wasn’t there until the very end. I'm working with one pitch right now. I don’t think it gets much worse than that."
For the Rays, Kevin Kiermaier had two home runs (and a fly to deep right field).
Faria threw three innings for Tampa Bay./CARMEN MANDATO
"That was probably the highlight of the day," Cash said. "He was a foot away from having three home runs. K.K. has the potential to get really hot. That's a step in the right direction."
The Rays also got two hits from Willy Adames.
The Rays now come home to open a series against Baltimore on Friday night. Blake Snell goes for his 18th win against the Orioles' Dylan Bundy in a game that begins at 7:05 p.m.
{ 0 comments… read it below or Subscriptions }