Offensive woes continue for Tampa Bay Rays

by Gary Shelton on September 30, 2022

in general

Friday, 4 a.m.

Turns out, Hurricanes Ian did not cause the only power shortage in Tampa Bay.

Turns out, the Tampa Bay Rays had their own.

And the question remains: Can this team hit enough to hang around the playoffs for any significant amount of time?


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The Rays lost their second 2-1 game in two nights Thursday night, falling 2-1 when the Cleveland Guardians scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning. That came on the tail end of a 2-1, 10-inning loss on Wednesday night.

If you follow the Rays, you know that such funks are commonplace. The Rays have been held to one or fewer runs in four of their last five games. They have scored four times in their last 26 innings. Since Sept 3, they are 26th in the majors and 14th in the AL. In their last 26 games, the Rays have scored three runs or fewer in 14 and two runs (or fewer) 12 times.

In two games, the Rays managed two runs, 10 hits and struck out 22 times. They were one-for-16 with runners in scoring position and stranded 14 in the losses.

Along the way, the Rays squandered a couple of good pitching performances. Thursday night, Jeffrey Springs threw six innings of three-hit shutout baseball, only to see his team lose when Shawn Armstrong gave up two runs in two innings of work.

The night before, the first seven Rays' pitchers gave up only one run (Tyler Glasnow, started and pitched three innings in his return), but the eighth, Javy Guerra, gave up a hit and two walks to lose the game.

In the ninth inning of Thursday's game, the Rays loaded the bases on three walks with one out but failed to score.

The Rays open a series with the Houston Astros tonight at 8:10 p.m. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Framber Valdez.

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