Tampa Bay looked to break the 0-0 tie in the third after Kevin Kiermaier singled to start the inning, and then it appeared Curt Casali was hit by a pitch. Yet it was determined that he swung, and Casali flew out two pitches later. John Jaso grounded hard into an inning ending 4-6-3 double play.
After three innings of two hit ball, Grady Sizemore put the Rays on the board in the fourth when he pulled an 0-1 change up into the right field seats — his fourth homer for the Rays, and the second this week.
Sizemore kept the Rays in front to start the sixth after Wilmer Flores lifted a ball near the short wall in left field. Grady went over the wall in the 162 landing to rob what should have been a solo shot from Flores, keeping the Rays in front.
Jake Odorizzi had just one other tough inning during the front six. He gave up a pair of one-out singles in the third to former Ray Kelly Johnson and Flores. Curtis Granderson sacrificed both runners into scoring position on a deep fly-ball to left, but Daniel Murphy flew out to center to end the inning. That started a string of 10 consecutive batters retired for Odorizzi, who scattered three hits and fanned six over the first six innings.
However, Juan Uribe put the Mets on the board one out into the seventh after crushing a 2-1 slider onto to the tarp in left. Odorizzi was pulled in favor of Steve Geltz after he allowed a two-out walk to Travis d’Arnaud. Geltz got the final out of the inning, setting the stage for some late-inning dramatics.
In the bottom of the frame, Loney followed Uribe’s monster shot with a solo blast of his own off deGrom for a 2-1 advantage. It was Loney’s fourth of the year (is first since July 7th).
Watch it fly, @Theloney_S. WATCH: http://t.co/KNLjkFKiIF #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/oitqeQtYMq
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) August 8, 2015
With a 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth, Jake McGee entered the ballgame and got the first two outs on a Flores popper to center, and a Granderson grounder to second. But Daniel Murphy turned on a 97 mph fastball, sending it into the right field seats to tie the game.
Longoria answered in the next half inning against reliever Tyler Clippard, sending a backspin solo-shot into deep right-center that just cleared the top of the wall (his 13th of the season).
Brad Boxberger’s less than quality pitching of late has been well documented, both here and in other places. Just a couple of days earlier, the reliever allowed a one out, bases loaded, walk-off walk against the Chicago White Sox. As he took the mound in the ninth, my neighbor in section 143 (at Tropicana Field) looked over to me and said, “I have a bad feeling about this,” as did every Rays’ fan in attendance.
Boxberger quickly committed a throwing error on a routine slow bouncer off the bat of Lucas Duda. The righty followed by uncorking a wild pitch which moved Duda to second, before getting Uribe to pop out. Michael Conforto looped a run-scoring double to left-center, tying the game at three. Logan Forsythe saved a run when he made a diving stop on Travis d’Arnaud’s infield hit to his left, putting runners on the corners. Boxberger coaxed a liner to short out of Johnson, but Flores looped a single to right in front of a diving Brandon Guyer for the go-ahead run.
Now down by one, Kevin Cash pulled Boxberger in favor of Alex Colome, who fanned Granderson swinging on three pitches. But the damage was done.
And though the Rays got a leadoff single from Asdrubal Cabrera (now 18-for-last-36) to put the tying run on the base paths, they couldn’t get anything more against closer Jeurys Familia. Guyer followed Cabby by grounding into an around the horn double play…except he didn’t. After huddling up, the home plate umpire called it a foul ball, which it clearly was. Lightning struck twice when Guyer hit another false ground out on the very next pitch. Yet Cabrera was eventually forced at second on a grounder to third. The Outlaw followed by grounding into what should have been a game ending double play. Flores, however, bobbled the ball couldn’t get the lead runner at second and just barely threw out Kiermaier at first. With two outs and the tying run in scoring position, Casali went down swinging to end the game.
Game over, Rays fall 4-3.
Noteworthiness
Nathan Karns (6-5, 3.37 ERA) will get the start for Tampa Bay, opposite of Noah Syndergaard (6-5, 2.66 ERA). Karns is 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA in two Interleague starts this season — April 12 at Miami and July 21 at Philadelphia — the fifth-lowest Interleague ERA in the Majors. Syndergaard, who recorded the biggest win of his young career on Sunday against the Nationals, has compiled a 6-3 record and 1.80 ERA in his last nine starts, fanning 66 while walking 14 in 60 innings of work. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 8/8/15 Starting Lineup
Jaso DH
Sizemore LF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Forsythe 2B
Cabrera SS
Nava RF
Kiermaier CF
Casali C
Karns RHP
Noteworthiness
— Boxberger lamented the blown save after the game. On the subject of the throwing error, he said:
I just rushed it, probably had more time, but just rushed it. (It got me off track) a little bit, but with the guys they had coming up I thought I could get a ground ball and get a double play out of it. But it didn’t work out.
Boxberger went on to say:
I didn’t feel like I had everything, but I definitely had enough to try to get through it. Just didn’t work out tonight. …They did a good job of hitting. A couple of those pitches were well-located and they were just able to get the barrel on the ball.
In any case, Cash said there is no plan to change his bullpen usage even though Boxberger has struggled is his last couple of outings.
— Sizemore became one of four players to hit a HR and rob a HR in the same game this season. The list also includes J.D. Martinez, Seth Smith, Mookie Betts, and Mike Trout.
— Matt Moore was solid in his first start with the Durham Bulls after being optioned to Triple-A. Moore was perfect through the front four innings, finishing by allowing just one run on two hits and a walk in six innings with seven strikeouts.