Colome blew his first save of the season ./CARMEN MANDATO
Friday, 4 a.m.
When a team is doing so little right, even a mixed bag can feel right.
Ask the Tampa Bay Rays, who fell -- at least temporally -- into the American League East basement Thursday with a 3-2, 12-inning loss to the Boston Red Sox.
It was a good-news-bad-news kind of day of the Rays, who haven't had a lot good to celebrate this season
For instance:
Good news: Pitcher Yonny Chironos, starting on what has been designated as a "bullpen day," certainly looked the part of a fourth-man-in-the-rotation in
Duffy tied the game with a two-run homer in the eighth./CARMEN MANDATO
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a five-inning, three-hit shutout. He matched Boston starter David Price inning for inning.
Bad news: Closer Alex Colome was the worst of seven relief pitchers for the Rays. He blew a 2-0 lead in the ninth, allowing four hits in his inning of work and two earned runs. After 47 saves a year ago, Colome couldn't shut the door.
Good news: Third baseman Matt Duffy hit a two-run homer to break a scoreless tie in the eighth inning. Duffy is hitting .259 for the Rays, which is one of the team's better averages.
Bad news: Left fielder Mallex Smith was unable to come up with a catch on Xander Bogaerts' drove off the wall in the ninth. Manager Kevin Cash had no problem with his effort, but Smith's glove was the same height as the fly ball.
Good news: The Rays, who have done little against Red Sox relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel, loaded the bases with a hit and two walks. Alas, there were no runs.
Bad news: After Duffy's homer in the bottom of the the eighth, the Rays had only two hits in the remaining five innings. In their final 4 1/3 innings, the Red Sox had six hits and four walks.
And so it went. It was one of the Rays' more promising games, but in the end, the Rays wasted good performances. The first four Rays' pitchers threw shutout baseball, but the Rays couldn't pull away far enough to survive Boston's ninth-inning comeback.
In the end, Hanley Ramirez' single to right drove home the winning run and dropped the Rays to 1-6.
"Timely hits by the Red Sox," Rays' manager Kevin Cash said. "We pitched really well. It was good to see Yonny go through their lineup. He made it challenging to take him out of the game."
Since opening day, the Rays have not won and the Red Sox have not lost.
"We've played fairly even by run-scoring, I guess," Cash said. "But unfortunately they've got us four times and we only got them once."
The Rays' hitting was once again limited by Boston starter David Price, who threw seven shutout inning and allowed only three hits. For the day, the Rays had six hits.
So far, Kevin Kiermaier, Carlos Gomes, C.J. Cron, Wilson Ramos and Brad Miller are all hitting under .200.
The Rays are off today, but play again Saturday afternoon against the Red Sox in Fenway at 1:05 p.m. Jake Faria pitches for the Rays against Rick Porcello.
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