Thursday, 4 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Rays ran out of comebacks Wednesday night. They almost ran out of pitchers, out of position players and out of patience, too.
The Rays lost a 9-7, 11-inning game to the last-place Washington Nationals in a weird game. You might wonder how the Rays lost it. On the other hand, if they had managed to win, you might wonder how they did that, too.
The Rays just couldn't slow down the Nationals' offense. Three times, they came from two runs down to tie the game, but every time, they fell behind again. The Rays gave up four runs in their two extra innings.
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The bullpen, which has been strong lately, didn't do as well. Diego Castillo took the loss, giving up a double on his first pitch of the 11th inning. In all, the Rays struck out 18 batters, but they threw 191 pitches.
"I’m not frustrated," said Ray's manager Kevin Cash. "We shouldn’t be frustrated. We did everything within our power to win the ballgame. We had the right guys at the plate at the right time. I'm very pleased with the way we went at it. We just fell short."
The Rays got off to a poor start behind starter Shane McClanahan, who threw 77 pitches and gave up two home runs in three innings.
Tampa Bay scored three in the first to take the lead after Patrick Corbin walked the bases full, but the Rays never took full advantage of his wildness. Tampa Bay walked seven times in all.
Twice, Joey Wendle tied the game. In the eighth, he hit a pinch-hit homer to tie the game at five. In the 10th, he singled in Randy Arozarena to tie the game at seven. Arozarena had three hits and drove in three runs.
Still, the Rays never could stop Washington, which got two home runs from Ryan Zimmerman.
"The Nationals did a good job of competing," Cash said. "Their starter (Corbin), we had him on the ropes early on. He did a heck of a job of settling in and getting back in the game and keeping us quiet. I was very encouraged that the guys continued to come back, come back , come back. We just fell a little short there at the end."
The Rays have today off, but begin a series with the Baltimore Orioles at 7:05 p.m. on Friday at Tropicana Field. Neither team has announced their starting pitcher.