Tuesday, 4 a.m.
Sadly, the Tampa Bay Rays are no longer a winning baseball team.
Even sadder, they seem to be sliding.
The Rays lost another game Monday night, falling in rather routine fashion in a 6-1 beating at the hands of the Houston Astros. The Rays have lost five of their last seven.
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This time, they went through the motions in accepting their drubbing. The Rays had just four hits. They struck out 13 times. They were 0-2 with runners in scoring position.
The Rays had only one starter hitting above .238. Five starters were hitting less than .200.
With an offense like that, there is added pressure on the pitchers. That didn’t work out for he Rays, either. Once again, Taj Bradley struggled. He lasted just 4 1/3 innings, giving up six runs and eight hits.
In his last three games, Bradley has given up 15 runs in nine innings of work. In those three losses, he has a 9.64 ERA.
The Astros took a 5-0 lead after three innings. Alex Bregman and Yainer Diaz homered.
Framer Valdez wpitched 5 2/3 innnings of three hit baseball and struck out nine.
The Rays’ only run came in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Jose Caballero. Tyler Walls had two hits for the Rays.
The teams play again tonight at 6:50 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Shane Baz will start for the Rays against Yusei Kikuchi,