The Rays dropped their sixth consecutive game Tuesday night, losing to the sub .500 Seattle Mariners by a score of 5-4. Tampa Bay did not lose more than six games in the entire month of July. The Rays now sit four games behind the first place Boston Red Sox, and only a game and a half in front of Baltimore for the second wildcard spot. I live blogged the game (in great detail, no less) over at our Tumblr site. Check that out for the blow by blow account of the game. Otherwise, the game peripherals are below:
- Chris Archer had a rough start — his 5 IP/9 H/5 R/5 ER/1 BB/5 K 91 pitches (62 for strikes) slash line speaks to that. Archer gave up a pair of homers to a rookie hitter who only tallied two big league homers prior to this game. Furthermore, he allowed six batters to get reach second or third in five innings of work. Simply put, he wasn’t sharp. However, the Rays went 1-9 wRISP — striking out six times with runners on second or third, while also grounding out twice. Archer was ultimately credited with the loss, BUT Tampa Bay had ample opportunities to tag Erasmo Ramirez, Oliver Perez, and Yoervis Medina for more than four runs.
- Good on Wesley Wright, Jake McGee, and Fernando Rodney. Wright came on in relief of Chris Archer in the sixth inning with no outs and runner on first. He quickly gave up an RBI triple to Ackley (the run was credited to Archer) then settled in nicely, striking out Quintero and Franklin, while getting Miller to ground out to first. His changeup has a lot of movement, especially when left down in the zone. Not ironically, both of his strikeouts came on changeups outside of the zone (see his pitch f/x chart below). The late inning relievers also looked good. They allowed only one base runner to reach on an Ackley single to center off Jake McGee. However, Ackley was quickly erased on a Quintero double play. And Rodney posted a 1-2-3 inning… Cough, where was that efficiency last Thursday and Friday?
- Zorilla continues to be hot, going 2-for-5 with two runs and three runs batted in, thanks to a pair of first inning and fifth inning homers. Zobrist is now hitting over .346 in the second half, with six doubles, three homers, nine runs, 11 RBI, and nine walks.
- Ben Zobrist and Brad Miller’s homers counted as the third time since 1916 when both teams’ leadoff hitters had multi-home run games.
The New What Next
David Price — the only Rays starter in 10 games to go more than five innings — will attempt to mop up the mess Wednesday, when he toes the rubber against Aaron Harang and the Mariners. You can read about the pitching match-up here.
Rays 8/14/13 Starting Lineup
Zobrist 2B
Joyce RF
Longoria 3B
Myers CF
Loney 1B
Escobar SS
Scott DH
Molina C
Johnson LF
Price LHP
Noteworthiness
- The Rays are now 1-for-10 when coming off an off-day. Maddon’s post game thoughts on that: “We’re not very good when coming off an off-day.”
- Joe Maddon will start Hellickson Friday, while the team will talk with, and about, Moore later today. He could start Saturday.
- Desmond Jennings took some swings off a tee today. According to Marc Topkin, Maddon said it “looks pretty good actually,” for a Monday activation.
- Maddon also mentioned that recent acquisition Jesse Crain is progressing well, though there is no timetable for activation just yet.