Friday, 4 a.m.
Remind yourself: they remain in first place.
They are 25 games above .500.
They have won the third-most games in the major leagues.
On the other hand, man, are they playing lousy baseball.
The Rays lost their sixth game in the last eight Thursday, falling 5-1 to the Toronto Blue Jays. It wrapped up a 2-5 homestand against the last two placed teams in the AL East.
-- The Rays' pitching has had a horrible week, giving up 47 runs and 82 hits in the seven games.
-- The Rays' hitting wasn't much better. They managed just four hits Thursday and were one-for-four with runners in scoring position. Toronto's Shane Bieber tamed the Rays over seven innings.
Ian Seymour started Thursday and gave up three home runs (Kazuma Okamoto, Nathan Lukes and Daz Cameron) in his five innings.
Yandy Diaz had two hits for the Rays.
Tampa Bay now travels to Baltimore to play the Orioles at Camden Yards at 7:15 p.m. Freddy Peralta (5-10) will pitch for the Rays against Trevor Rogers (8-8)