The Tampa Bay Rays dropped the final game against the Toronto Blue Jays by a score of 3-2, Wednesday night. Despite a disastrous two-run first inning, Chris Archer put things together, posting five consecutive innings of scoreless ball. Tampa Bay fell back to eight games under .500 thanks to the loss (and the series sweep). The Rays will resume play Friday in Boston, where they’ll start a three-game weekend series against the Red Sox. Having lost almost all they gained prior to this, their most recent series, the Rays will try to bury the Red Sox once again.
Source: FanGraphs
Chris Archer was touched up for two runs on three hits (all singles) and a walk in the first inning. And similar to his previous start, Archer threw a lot of pitches in that inning (27), appearing as though he’d be chewed up and spit out by the Blue Jays buzzsaw like Erik Bedard and Alex Cobb before him. Yet, in spite of the first inning woes, Archer turned it around from the second inning on, quickly settling down and throwing five zeroes on the board. His fastball/sinker/slider combo really worked for him, and the Rays depended on Archer and his “stuff” in order to hang around. A hindsight is 20/20 moment came in the first inning, when Jose Bautista, sliding headfirst into home, was called safe by the umpire as his left hand appeared to swipe the back of the plate for the second run of the inning. The above view of the play (on the broadcast) clearly showed that Bautista missed the plate. Unfortunately, that view wasn’t available for the Rays to review at the time, and Joe Maddon chose not to call Wichita. All in all, Archer threw 100 pitches over six innings, with two runs allowed on six hits, two walks, a hit-by-pitch, and seven strikeouts.
On the other side of things, the Rays scored all of their runs in the top of the second inning, when Wil Myers scorched a two-run line drive shot over the left field wall (clocked at 104.8 MPH off the bat), scoring Matt Joyce — who reached on a double off the top of the wall — from second. Though the Blue Jays starter Liam Hendriks held Tampa Bay to only three hits, while walking none and striking out five, his final line doesn’t tell the whole story. The Rays hit him hard, yet not hard enough to pacify the luck dragons. Like flys to, well…every hard hit ball found a Toronto fielder.
As Ian Malinowski of DRaysBay wrote, none of the other Rays fly balls would have enough carry after the second inning, and they sure did hit a lot of fly balls. There were more decently hit flies than I took notes on, but let me highlight a few:
- With a man on first base in the third inning, James Loney hit a fly ball to left-center that Gose pulled off the top of the wall.
- Leading off the fourth, Desmond Jennings hit a moonshot just a few inches foul, and then followed it up with another fly ball to edge of the warning track.
- In the sixth inning, Evan Longoria pulled a changeup to the top of the left-field wall, but Cabrera made a leaping grab right before running into the padding.
All told, it was a frustrating game to watch.
Noteworthiness
- Matt Joyce’s got first hit against LHP of the season in the seventh inning — a lead off, opposite field, ground rule double. Prior to that hit, Joyce was 0-17 vs. LHP, with two RBI.
- Chris Archer plunked Jose Bautista on the left shoulder with a 98 mph fastball. No drama ensued…the wasn’t the Red Sox, after all.
- Jose Molina pulled from the game after taking a foul ball off the face-mask in the eighth inning. Per Malinowski’s account, “He was knocked out of his crouch and appeared unsteady for a second, but while being checked out tried to convince the Rays that he was okay. One batter later, the home plate umpire thought that the Rays needed to take another look, and called them back out. Once again, Molina convinced them that he was able to continue, and he finished out the inning. Apparently though, the Rays changed their mind, and left him on the bench for the ninth. Molina takes a ton of foul tips off his facemask, but this one really did look bad. Let’s all hope that Molina’s brain is okay (not just because Ryan Hanigan is already on the DL).”
- …And since we’re a mere day away from our watch party this Friday, I’m compelled to mention something about it every day this week. We sincerely hope that each and every one of you can make it out!
