Blame the inexcusable errors for the Rays 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays last night. Playing their sloppiest game in some time, Tampa Bay fell into a tie for the top wild card spot with two left to play. That one hurt, though the Rays still only need to win two games in order to clinch a postseason berth. Tampa Bay, ideally, got the sloppy fielding out of their system last night. Look at the bright side, at least the good guys don’t have to face Dickey again. A few quick game peripherals are below.
- I still contend that Jeremy Hellickson is at his best in the long reliever roll — his previous outing (prior to last night’s start) and his numbers the first time through the order speak to that. However, he didn’t pitch as bad (relatively speaking) as his line may suggest. Consider that Helly was perfect in the front three innings, until Jose Reyes tagged him a leadoff single in the fourth. Sloppy fielding was ultimately the culprit. Brett Lawrie reached on a one out fielding error by Evan Longoria. The next two batters hit a pair of singles, tying the game at two a piece. Helly wrung up Mark DeRosa in the next at-bat for the second out of the inning. Hypothetically speaking, the inning would have ended with DeRosa’s strikeout, hadn’t Longoria made the error — but the inning continued. Sam Fuld followed with his own fielding gaffe, allowing a Ryan Goins liner to center get under his glove and roll all the way to the wall, giving the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead. That kind of play shouldn’t happen, especially on the fast turf that the Rays fielders are accustomed to. Toronto tacked on a couple more in the fifth thanks to more poor pitching and poor fielding — the typically sure handed Evan Longoria made another error on a play that would have ended the inning.
- Base runners were at a premium with RA Dickey on the mound. Still, Tampa Bay had an opportunity to claw their way back into the game in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and one out. James Loney came to the plate with the opportunity to play the part of the hero. He, however, promptly grounded into a double play on the first pitch he saw from reliever Sergio Santos. Erik Hahmann of DRaysBay asserts, “The team’s futility with the bases loaded is hard to wrap your head around. I’m not even mad, that’s amazing.” I concur.
The New What Next
Tampa Bay will take on JA Happ and the Jays this afternoon, countering with Chris Archer on the bump. Archer is coming off a labor intensive 4-1/3 inning outing against the Orioles Monday. His previous two starts were solid though. When he’s at his best, the Rays rookie will attack the zone with his plus fastball, slider and change-up. He hasn’t leaned as heavily on his excellent change-up of late, and there’s no time like the present to do so. You can read about the pitching match-up here.
Rays 9/28/13 Starting Lineup
Ben Zobrist 2B
Sean Rodriguez LF
Wil Myers RF
Evan Longoria 3B
Delmon Young DH
Yunel Escobar SS
James Loney 1B
Jose Molina C
Sam Fuld CF
Chris Archer RHP