Wednesday, 4 a.m.
Perhaps you have seen it before.
Despite decent pitching, the Rays continue to struggle on offense. Opposing starting pitchers are wonderful. The Rays are sure that the hitting will kick in at any point now.
And yet, it happens again.
The Rays followed the same script in Tuesday night's 3-0 loss to the Texas Rangers. They managed just three hits, all singles, as yet another opposing starter dominated the game. The Rays pitching was pretty good, but not good enough.
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It keeps happening. For six straight games now, the opposing starter has looked like Roger Clemens on the mound. Over their last six games, opposing staters have thrown 40 1/3 innings. They've given up just eight runs and 17 hits.
Tuesday night, it was Martin Perez, who retired his last 16 Rays' batters in order. After Taylor Walls hit a shot off of Perez' leg in the second inning, it just seemed to make the Rangers' pitcher angry. The Rays' didn't have another player reach base.
"Perez was outstanding," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash, who must be tired of praising the opposition. "His pitches were executed well. He had a lot of late action in the zone. Add the fact that he was pitching to the edges all night with every batter. You’re going to have a quiet offensive night. Saying that, we’ve been quiet here as of late. We’ve got to turn it around. I'm confident we will. Tonight wasn’t the night to do it with how good Perez was.
“Collectively, we’ve got to do a better job of putting pressure on the pitcher and protecting our guy on the mound a little bit. Every pitcher is pitching with little margin of error."
Ryan Yarbrough wasn't bad for the Rays, taking a no-hitter into the fourth. But in a 10-pitch stretch, he gave up a homer, a double and a homer for the game's only runs.
The Rays found out more bad news Tuesday when Wander Franco was put on the Injured List. Franco -- who said it was "a good decision" --- will leave the team's offense a little less potent.
The Rays and Rangers play in Arlington again tonight at 8:10 p.m. Jeffrey Springs will pitch for the Rays against Jon Gray.