Saturday, 4 a.m.
Oh, so that's what happens you play a team that isn't the Baltimore Orioles.
Three errors. Three passed balls. A blown lead. A shaky start. Trouble hitting the ball. And defeat.
It all happened to the Rays on Friday night against the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox, who had a comeback o their own to beat the Rays 7-5 in 11 innings. The Rays saw their own division lead fall to four games over the Yankees in the AL East.
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The Rays were in position to claim their 39th comeback win of the year, rallying from a 4-2 deficit with three runs in the bottom of the eighth, the final two of those coming on a single by Austin Meadows.
But the White Sox -- led by shortstop Tim Anderson -- came back. Anderson homered on a full count to tie the game at five. The White Sox scored two runs in the 11th for the win. For the night, Anderson had three hits, scored twice and drove in two.
“He’s a really good player to begin with, and he’s really clutch," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "We haven’t played the White Sox in quite some time, but you see him on the highlights all the time with his late-inning heroics. He got us today for sure."
Lost in the game was the bottom of the ninth, when the Rays got a runner to third with one out but could not get him home.
The Rays started Michael Wacha, who seemed to be pitching for his spot in the rotation. He went five innings and allowed four runs and nine hits, although Cash allowed that he pitched better than his line indicated. "He got some big outs," Cash said.
J.T. Chargois gave up the home run to Anderson in the ninth. Andrew Kittredge took the loss in the 10th.
The passed balls and errors plagued the Rays. Tampa Bay had played four straight errorless games and had taken over the major league-lead in run prevention.
"It was uncharacterstic for our club in general." Cash said. "We had errors,. We had plays that should have been called errors. We didn’t do our pitchers any favors today. But we’ll bounce back tomorrow and get back to playing that solid defense and run prevention we’ve been accustomed to."
The Rays and White Soc play today at 1:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Luis Patino will pitch for the Rays against Dallas Keuchel.