Wednesday, 4 a.m.
Is the sky falling? Have giant chasms appeared in the earth's surface?
The Rays have lost, which is rare.
For that matter, the Rays have been shut out, which is unprecedented.
The Rays were held to five hits, and no runs, in a 5-0 loss to the Houston Astros Tuesday night. Yes, the Rays are still 20-4, but statisticians can stop looking through the history books for the time being.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo). Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
Houston's Luis Garcia tamed the Rays' offense, handing them their first home loss in 15 games. Garcia gave up only three hits in his six innings of work and had the Rays' lineup off-balance all evening. The Rays had just one extra base hit.
Rays' starter Drew Rasmussen, on the other hand, ran into problems in the fifth inning. After throwing four scoreless innings of three-hit baseball, Rasmussen allowed six hits -- four of them doubles -- and five runs in the inning.
"They pieced together a big inning," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "They hit balls hard, they hit tweeners. They’re a good-hitting team. They make adjustments. Leading into that inning, Drew was throwing the ball well."
The Rays' bottom five hitters were one-for-14 in the game. Tampa Bay was 0-3 with runners in scoring position.
The Rays play the rubber game of the Houston series today at 6:40 p.m at Tropicana Field. Calvin Faucher will start for the Rays against Hunter Brown.