Rays’ bats still missing in loss to Blue Jays

by Gary Shelton on August 3, 2022

in general

Tuesday, 4 a.m.

Here's a thought. On trading deadline, with all of these hitters changing teams, perhaps the Tampa Bay Rays should have thought about one or two.

Or three.

Or four.

The Rays played another game without bats on Monday night, losing a 3-1 game to Toronto in which they got only two hits -- both by light-hitting shortstop Taylor Walls -- in their latest display of ineffectiveness.


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The Rays' only major league deadline move was to acquire Jose Siri from Houston. Siri is hitting .174 on the season.

Toronto's Kevin Gausman, who entered with a 7-8 record and loser of five of his last seven decisions, dominated the Rays. He allowed just one hit through eight innings and struck out 10.

The Rays have scored 26 runs in their last 10 games. They've scored fewer than three runs in eight of those games, and they’re hitting .224 over that span.

"He was really good," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Gausman. He commanded the ball very well. He established his fastball maybe a little bit more than what we’ve seen. 

“I’ll always give credit to the pitcher who can go out there and throw a one-hitter through five or whatever. He was on. I’d like to think we could do a better job of making an in-game adjustments. But there's no doubt Gausman was really really good."

The top eight hitters in the Rays' lineup were a combined 0-for-25. They Rays got a single in the sixth and a home run in the ninth -- both by Walls, who is hitting .176.

The Rays trailed 1-0 for most of the game until the ninth, when Danny Jansen blooped in a two-out, two-run single to center that Siri made a diving attempt to catch before the ball eluded him.

The Rays play Toronto again today at 12:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Jalen Beeks will start for the Rays against Yusei Kikuchi.


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