Thursday, 4 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Rays, battered and bruised, now return to Tropicana Field.
Forgive the players if they kiss it right on home plate.
The Rays closed out a nightmarish road trip Wednesday, meekly accepting a 6-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners, another team hovering near the .500 level. They won four games on the trip, and frankly, were fortunate to win four.
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On the trip, they scored 23 runs (nine in one game). They had 54 hits, were eight-for-56 with runners in scoring position and struck out 93 times.
Yeah, it’s a bad road trip.
The Rays, 66-67, averaged two runs a game against the Mariners.
Josh Lowe hit his second home run of the trip to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.
From there, the Mariners took over. Randy Arozarena reached on an infield single in the bottom of the second. He went to second on an error, then took third and home on fly balls.
From there, home runs took over for Seattle. The Mariners got two-run homers from Victor Robles and Julio Rodriguez, both off of Tyler Alexander. They Arozarena hit his 18th homer of the year in the eighth.
The Rays’ final run came when Dylan Carlson singled in Brandon Lowe.
The Rays are off today. They return to play Friday night at 6:50 p.m. against San Diego at Tropicana Field. Taj Bradley is scheduled to start for the Rays. The Padres have not announced a starter.