Thursday, 4 a.m.
You can blame the pitching. Heck, why not. You cannot be rougher on the pitching of the Tampa Bay Rays than the Philadelphia Phillies were Wednesday night.
The Phillies assaulted the Rays. They clobbered them. They had 17 hits and three walks in eight team at bats, and they ran away with an 8-4 victory, their 11th straight win on the road.
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Of course, you could also blame the hitting. The Rays scored four runs in their first three innings, but after that, they got only two singles and no runs. It was the second straight night a Phillies’ starter has tamed them.
It added up to the team’s fourth straight loss. The Rays are now 6-10 in their last 16 games, and they’re just 17-14 since the first of June. Suddenly, the batting order seems flawed, and the power seems limited, and the clutch hit is nowhere to be found.
Is this a natural slump by a team that started hot? Is it baseball catching up to Tampa Bay? Or are there cracks in the foundation?
Certainly, the Rays needed better pitching than they got Wednesday night. Zach Littell started and was immediately staked to a 2-0 lead on a bloop double by Brandon Lowe. But in the second, Littell gave up two runs on four hits. Then came Yonny Chirinos, who gave up eight hits and three runs in 2 2/3 innings.
And then it was on. The Phillies hit three doubles and two home runs on their way to an easy victory.
The Phillies go for the sweep today against the Rays’ Shawn Armstrong. The Phillies will counter with Cristopher Sanchez.