The Tampa Bay Rays had a chance to hand Dallas Keuchel his first loss of the season at home, but for the second consecutive game the team couldn’t collect insurance runs late, and the bullpen lost a late lead. The Rays fell 3-2 in 13 innings, and are now 2-10 in extras this year. What follows isn’t a complete recap of the game, rather a few brief points of conversation to mull over.
― Aside from a mistake in the first inning, Nathan Karns was incredible. Relying heavily upon his off-speed stuff, against the fastball hunting Astros, Karns arguably bested Dallas Keuchel, posting an impressive 6 IP/6 H/1 ER/1 BB/8 K/1 HR outing on 84 pitches (53 strikes). For him to take a no-decision shows a lack of justice in this world.
― Xavier Cedeno followed Karns by retiring the side in the seventh. It was his 15th straight scoreless outing, all without allowing a walk, setting a franchise record.
― The inability to get the insurance run in the eighth proved costly, as Brad Boxberger allowed the tying run in the ninth. Boxberger started the frame by getting Jed Lowrie to hit a bad luck soft popper to shallow left, but the ball fell into play against the shift for a bloop double. Then, on a 1-2 pitch to Preston Tucker, Boxberger uncorked a wild pitch to the screen, allowing Lowrie to advance 90 feet. Tucker went down swinging for the first out, bringing Evan Gattis to the plate. Boxberger was able to coax the soft grounder he so badly needed, however, it rolled past the drawn-in infield, plating a run and tying the score at two. Luis Valbuena grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, sending the game to extras.
Oh, it’s the most frustrating thing ever, because you can’t look at something and change something. It’s just a matter of it’s just not going your way that day, or a couple of days, whatever it is.
― Boxberger, on throwing well but not getting the results
― After Brad Boxberger allowed the lead to slip away, Brandon Gomes entered in relief and pitched two superb innings for just the third time this season; the last time he did so was April 29 against the Yankees. Gomes, who also leaned heavily on his off-speed stuff, retired all six of the batters he faced, while racking up four whiffs. He’s now retired 22 consecutive batters over 7-1/3 innings.
― Although they racked up 10 hits, the Rays posited an ugly .200 batting average wRISP (2-for-10). The egregious lack of scoring bit them at the beginning of the game, when they had runners on the corners with one out in the first inning, and again in the eighth.
About the eighth inning…
Keuchel’s night was done after Curt Casali and Brandon Guyer tagged him with back-to-back base hits. Chad Qualls entered the game and quickly struck out Desmond Jennings. Evan Longoria followed with a single to left, but Casali ― running from second ― was held at third. Qualls fanned Logan Forsythe and Asdrubal Cabrera to end the bases loaded threat. The Rays got just one more opportunity to score in the 12th after James Loney doubled into the left-field corner with one out, however, Kevin Kiermaier fouled out and Rene Rivera went down swinging after an extended at-bat.
― Me, playing backseat manager… I would have thrown Alex Colome in the ninth. Colome needed only 10 pitches to buzz through the Astros’ order in a 1-2-3 eighth.
The New What Next
Chris Archer (10-9, 2.93 ERA) will start the final game of the four-game series, opposite of Collin McHugh (13-6, 4.09 ERA). Archer got roughed up in Texas on Saturday when he allowed eight runs (seven earned) on 11 hits in 5-1/3 innings against the Rangers. He is 2-1 with a 1.09 ERA in four career starts against the Astros. According to Roger Mooney (Tampa Tribune), Archer won’t change his approach if the Astros have the same aggressive approach as the Rangers:
No, because if they execute my pitch they get out and I have less pitches. I don’t mind them being more aggressive. I just have to execute at a higher level or just continue to execute, because what I’ve been doing this year has been successful and I’m going to continue to do that.
McHugh, who has a 2.99 ERA in his last 11 starts, finished with a no-decision in his last start, scattering just four hits over seven innings of one-run ball in the Astros’ loss to Detroit on Saturday. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.
Rays 8/20/15 Starting Lineup
Jaso DH
Sizemore RF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Forsythe 2B
Cabrera SS
Jennings LF
Kiermaier CF
Rivera C
Archer RHP
Noteworthiness
― Jake McGee was diagnosed as having a torn meniscus in his left knee that he sustained in Tuesday night’s game. You can read more about it in our updated piece.
― The Rays 10 walkoff losses are the most in MLB, one shy of the team record set in 2002. It was the eighth time they’ve had walkoff losses to straight days, and the second time this season.