Saturday, 4 a.m.
More than any team in baseball, the Tampa Bay Rays live off their pitching staff.
Friday night, it was the death of them.
The Rays blew an early lead and lost a 9-8 game to the last-place Boston Red Sox. The Rays, who had held opponents to three runs or fewer in 12 of their last 13 games and had a 1.65 ERA over that stretch, gave up 16 hits to the Red Sox.
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The Rays had a 4-1 lead after three innings, but they couldn't stop the Sox enough to hold it. Ryan Yarbrough gave up five runs and eight hits in getting just 10 outs in the game, and Shawn Armstrong gave up three runs and five hits while recording just five outs.
The Rays usually win when they score five runs or more (they were 43-7 when scoring that many) and when they take an early lead (they were 53-17 when scoring first).
So, when Yandy Diaz homered on the first pitch of the game, and when ji-Man Choi added a two-run shot in the second, it seemed the Rays were on their way. But the Red Sox scored nine straight runs.
The Rays made it close with four runs in the eighth, three of them on a home run by Jose Siri.
The Rays play Boston again today at Fenway Park at 4:10 p.m. Jeffrey Springs will start for the Rays against Rich Hill.