Monday, 4 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Rays drive toward the cellar continued Sunday afternoon. Once again, it wasn't pretty.
The Rays lost a 2-1 game to Baltimore, which has treated last place as if it was a prize possession for years. The Rays left 10 men on base and went one-for-six with runners in scoring position, which has been a familiar sight in the team's 2-7 road trip.
The Rays, meanwhile, are sinking like a stone in the AL East Standings. Before this road trip, the Rays were in second place. Now, they're tied for fourth and not that far ahead of Baltimore.
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Once again, it was the bats that betrayed the Rays Sunday, although the team had nine hits. But it was unable to bunch any of them. It had a runner (Brett Phillips) thrown out at home in the second inning, and Randy Arozarena struck out with the bases loaded in the third.
"(Corey Kluber) was so good again for us," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "It's just irritating and frustrating at the same time not to be able to help him out a little bit. We swung the bats okay, but you’ve got to piece together some bigger innings than what we’re doing as of late."
As of late, the Rays have been among the worst teams in baseball. In their nine-game road trip they scored just 27 runs and struck out 93 times. They left too many runners, and they were dreadful with runners in scoring position.
Now they get to come home to face the first-place Yankees. Shane McClanahan will start for Tampa Bay against Gerrit Cole.