ST. PETERSBURG — On times these as this, you need to appear for silver linings.
For occasion, I guess the Crimson Sox are genuinely ticked off now.
For three days, the Rays played some of their finest baseball of 2021 in opposition to Boston. The seats at Tropicana Area had been stuffed, Rays pitchers ended up sharp and hitters were being knocking the ball all above the yard. Tampa Bay received a few in a row and wrested command of the American League East absent from Boston.
And as quickly as the Crimson Sox remaining city, the Rays moist the mattress.
Tampa Bay did extremely little appropriate in an 8-2 reduction to Seattle on Monday evening, the fifth consecutive game the Rays have dropped versus the Mariners this year. Even the box business was a disappointment with a puny crowd of 5,855 at Tropicana Area.
“It’s just one of people matters,” mentioned centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier who had a triple and a wander. “Came out (Sunday) evening in primary time and a packed residence, and then it was just variety of useless in the creating the entire evening (Monday) and we couldn’t produce any momentum for ourselves.
“They had far better at-bats from the get-go. Even when we ended up down 5 or 6 it seemed like a good deal additional than that simply because we weren’t in a position to create a whole ton. Those people matters take place.”
Apart from infuriating Boston admirers, the only other consolation was the Blue Jays and Yankees both dropped Monday so only the idle Pink Sox gained a 50 %-video game in the standings.
Continue to, if you are into omens and portents, this recreation was not a very good indication. The previous time the Rays began a collection against the Mariners, they had a just one-recreation direct in the AL East. Right after getting swept in Seattle, the Rays were being staring up at the Red Sox in the standings.
“It’s 1 match no a person is concerned about it,” Kiermaier mentioned. “We just experienced a terrific weekend. These matters materialize. They had been the significantly superior crew tonight and it showed.”
Proper-hander Michael Wacha continued his yin/yang edition of a beginning pitcher for the Rays. Coming off a strong 5-inning outing versus the Yankees, Wacha gave up eight hits, three walks and five operates in 3.2 innings. It is aspect of a disturbing pattern for Wacha, who has followed up each decent overall performance with a bad exhibiting in the earlier 6 weeks.
“I do concur with your evaluation. There is been variance and inconsistencies in there,” supervisor Kevin Hard cash reported. “The get started ahead of this was arguably his finest begin of the period and he’s set with each other a handful of people. It is unlucky these days that he was not able to adhere to it up.
“He stayed out there competing, it just was not his evening. And definitely not our night.”
Of program, it wasn’t all Wacha’s fault. His protection let him down with a pair of faults from second baseman Brandon Lowe and a couple of other shaky plays that are unusual for the slick-fielding Rays.
Tampa Bay hitters didn’t supply significantly enable, possibly. The Rays ended up scoreless through the very first a few innings from Chris Flexen though the Mariners built a 6- lead.
It wasn’t especially superior timing for the Tampa Bay bullpen, either. With five of their relievers heading on the injured list in the past five months, the Rays are managing slim on readily available pitchers on the 40-gentleman roster.
![Michael Wacha didn't go deep into the game Monday like the Rays hoped he might.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4200 2800"/%3E "Michael Wacha didn't go deep into the game Monday like the Rays hoped he might.")
After the bullpen threw 11 innings in the a few-video game sequence versus Boston, Money was hoping Wacha could get further into Monday night’s game to give the bullpen a breather. Alternatively, Wacha experienced a 42-pitch 3rd inning and was gone with two outs in the fourth.
Reliever Chris Mazza aided bail out the relaxation of the bullpen with a 3-inning effort and hard work.
“The issue that sticks out the most is (not) finding in advance,” Wacha stated. “Whenever I drop behind, I have got to occur back over the plate and try out to get a strike and get back again into the depend when the things isn’t as sharp as I’d like it to be.”
The Rays had obtained four game titles on the Red Sox in the East in the past 4 times, so heading backward by a 50 percent-activity on Monday possibly is not the largest shock in the planet.
“We constantly occur prepared to perform, prepared to clearly show up to try to put on a demonstrate for our supporters,” Kiermaier explained. “We ended up just flat. We ended up flat tonight.”
John Romano can be achieved at [email protected]. Stick to @romano_tbtimes.
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