Wednesday, 4 a.m.
To beat even the little teams, a ball club must do the little things.
On Tuesday night, the Tampa Bay Rays did not.
The Rays lost for the second straight time to the Oakland A’s, the worst team in baseball. This time it was 2-1, and the Rays’ final few innings betrayed them. They got to 48 wins this season by being efficient, but against the A’s, there were holes.
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There were holes in the pitching, for instance. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Rays nine outs from the win, the eighth hitter in the lineup, Jace Peterson, started his at bat with two strikes. However, he worked a walk off Robert Stephenson. AS often happens, that led to a run when Brent Rooker hit a two-run double to left.
There was a hole in the offense, which managed just five hits all night. But one of those was a double by Manuel Margot to lead off the ninth. He was sacrificed to third, but with one out, Yandy Diaz popped up. Wander Franco then flew out to right field.
There was a hole in the defense. In the bottom of the eighth, the A’s got a leadoff hit from Ramon Laureano. Jonah Bride tried to sacrifice him to second, and Rays’ second baseman Taylor Walls was hopping up and down for Poche to throw to second. He didn’t. Laulreano then scored and came home on a groundout for the winning run.
You could even say there was hole in the running game. Randy Arozarena walked in the ninth but was thrown out at second base to end the threat.
It all ended up as another shortfall against the As, who have won seven straight. This time, the pitcher from Oakland who corralled the Rays was reliever Hogan Harris, who came in with an era of 6.46.
Harold Ramirez and Margot each had two hits for the Rays.
Tampa Bay almost pulled off a bullpen night, with Yonny Chirinos throwing 3.2 innings of two-hit, shutout baseball.
“We just couldn’t get much going,” said Rays’ manager Kevin Cash. “Their pitchers did a nice job. It just carried over from last night. We’ve been a little quiet.”
The Rays saw their lead in the AL East shrink to four games.
Tampa Bay and Oakland play again tonight at 9”40 p.m. The Rays will start Tyler Glasnow against Luis Medina.