Rays Clobbered By Rangers; Fall Back Below .500

Eleven games in, the Rays suffer yet another tough loss. This time to the Texas Rangers.

Nothing went right at Tropicana Field. The offense failed to capitalize on runners on base, and pitchers were hit off of like a tee.

All Goes Quiet At the Plate…Again

Rays offense came out swinging to start, scoring two in the top of the first to make it 2-1. Joey Wendle doubled to score Randy Arozarena, and then, Wendle scored on a single by Yandy Diaz. Two runs on two hits and a hit by pitch. This would be it until Diaz brought another run in in the eighth inning.

But it was way too late by then.

Yarbs’ Nightmarish Night

At least he only walked one batter.

Rays starter Ryan Yarbrough successfully pitched to contact. The Problem was nothing went straight to guys on the field.

Yarbs gave up six runs–all earned–on 10 hits in six innings pitched.

Trevor Richards didn’t play the mop-up roles either, giving up two runs, a two-run home run, in three innings pitched.

The Rays had some things go right. There were almost no free bases, and there was only one home run the whole game. The defense also played cleanly the entire game–which had been an issue for the bulk of the first 10 games.

The Rangers just kept making good contact and took advantage of the situations they had. They went 6-13 with runners in scoring position. That’ll win you the ballgame almost every time.

The best way to describe the Rays in the first 11 games is inconsistent. They can still win this series and probably will. But to do that, they need to find ways to string runs together. The home runs don’t always come, and there are nine ways to get on base. Might as well try all of them.

The Rays return tonight against the Rangers. Josh Fleming will take the mound to start the game. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m.