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A Tampa Bay Rays batboy brings towels out to the bullpen during a delay in the third inning. A thunderstorm outside the stadium knocked out a bank of lights, delaying the game. (Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

I must confess; between celebrating my brother’s birthday and writing a piece on the Rays infield moving forward, I didn’t get a chance to write about the 7-4 loss at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays. Let’s be honest, Chris Archer yielding six runs and a power outage — both literal and proverbial — don’t really make for a compelling game of baseball. The short and narrow, Tampa Bay dropped its first home series to Toronto for the first time since April 2007 — a span lasting 21 series. Ouch.

Danny Russell put together a pretty interesting summary of the game. You can read a snippet below,

The general theme of the night, however, was ineptitude, and not just on the Dome: Jose Molina tossing the ball on a transfer to throw out a runner heading toward second. The chopper bouncing off the tip of James Loney’s glove. Kevin Kiermaier’s throw bringing James Loney way off the line, and no one covering first base. Wil Myers legging it over to a liner, but it landing just past his route to the ball. And Chris Archer just looked uncomfortable.

My biggest take away on the night however was a different sort of power outage. Not electrical, not mental, but physical. Navarro and Encarnacion homered against a good pitcher tonight, combined with some authoritative hitting from Adam Lind it was a depressing sight.

The Rays are currently on pace to have to worst homerun total in the seventeen year history of the franchise, less than the 111 recorded in 1998. The team has yet to crack three digits worth, an abysmal showing from a fly ball heavy squad of hitters, and the star Evan Longoria has yet to reach twenty, in a season he’s not injured.

You can read Danny’s recap in its entirety by clicking this here, or by clicking the screenshot below.

Click the screenshot to be redirected to Danny Russell's game recap via DRaysBay.
Click the screenshot to be redirected to Danny Russell’s game recap via DRaysBay.

The New What Next

Jake Odorizzi will attempt to put together a series salvaging outing against Mark Buehrle. Buehrle (11-9, 3.59 ERA) has been an anomaly which the Rays haven’t been able to crack this season. Though they should have won the last two games he’s started, both culminated in extra innings walk-off wins for the Blue Jays. Buehrle is coming off a 6-3 loss against the Yankees, Saturday. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.

Rays 9/4/14 Starting Lineup

Zobrist DH
Myers RF
Guyer LF
Longoria 3B
Forsythe 2B
Rodriguez 1B
Escobar SS
Hanigan C
Kiermaier CF
Odorizzi RHP

Noteworthiness

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