Thursday, 4 a.m.
They were pretty. They were long, and they were high, and they left the park in a hurry.
This time, however, the home run could not bail out the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays dug themselves a hole early in Wednesday night’s game and went on to lose 6-4 to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Rays, chasing the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East, allowed the Cards to snap a five-game losing streak.
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The Rays’ opener strategy didn’t pay off for them this time. Jalen Beeks opened the game and recorded six outs, but he gave up two earned runs. Kevin Kelley then came in and, in his six outs, he gave up three more earned runs. In four innings, the two gave up eight of the Cards’ nine hits and five of their six runs.
Tampa Bay tried to homer their way back into the game. Jose Siri hit two to retain the team lead at 22. Wander Franco hit his 16th, the longest of his career at 448 feet. But the Rays only had three at-bats with runners in scoring position, and they failed to get a hit.
The Rays had two hits in their last four half-innings.
The teams wrap up their series today at 6:40 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Zack Littell will start for the Rays against ex-Ray minor leaguers Matthew Liberatore.