Monday, 4 a.m.
Another day, and you might be buzzing about the pitching.
A better offensive effort, and you might think you had seen a glimpse of the future as it took place.
You could be talking about the debut of young Luis Patino, who went 2 2/3 innings of no-hit baseball for the Rays. You might be discussing the journey of Louis Head, who made his first major league appearance since being drafted 10 years ago, and who threw a shutout inning. You might be impressed with the 4 2/3 innings of Josh Fleming, who gave up just one run in his latest outing.
Instead, you are talking, again, about the offense of the Rays, an attack that fades in and out like bad radio reception. You are talking about a 1-0 loss to Toronto.
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The Rays faced six pitchers Sunday, and they were unable to score against any of them. They managed just five hits, and none through their last 15 outs. For the day, they were zero-for-six with runners in scoring position.
In other words, the Rays squandered a perfectly solid pitching effort as they fell to 11-11 on the season.
"We couldn’t get anything going," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash.
We couldn’t manufacture anything. Their pitching did a nice job. They lose (Hyun Jin) Ryu earlier than expected, but they pieced together really well with their bullpen and kept our bats pretty quiet."
The Rays had been on a hot streak offensively. Over their last eight games (6-2), the Rays had averaged 6.5 runs per game (52 runs on 69 hits and 30 walks). Sunday, however, they were handcuffed.
No, it wasn't all the Jays' pitching, Cash said.
"They were really tough," Cash said. "I ‘d like to think our hitters were confident that they had an off-day was well as them being tough. We just couldn’t get anything going. We didn’t hit enough balls hard. We’ll be back."
The Rays start a series with the Oakland A's tonight at Tropicana Field at 7:10 p.m. Rich Hill will start for the Rays. Oakland has not announced a starter.