With any and all momentum from their last home stand all but lost, the Rays dropped their second straight game to the Orioles by a score of 3-2. Tampa Bay has now scored only four runs in their last 41 innings in Baltimore. My opinion? This team isn’t playing like a play-off contender, and the frustration is palpable.
I’d love to stand here and give props to the Orioles pitching staff for throwing a hell of a game. However that wasn’t the case, as they handed the Rays opportunity after opportunity to win the game. In the end, Tampa Bay squandered almost every opportunity handed to them.
Finding themselves on base 16 times on nine hits and seven walks, Tampa Bay had men in scoring position in the first, second, third, sixth, seventh, and ninth innings. Sadly though, they would end the night going 2-10 wRISP, stranding 11 on the bags. The Yankees won, the Orioles are surging, (as are the Athletics) yet the Rays find themselves floundering…waiting for some steering current to send them in the right direction.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: it really doesn’t matter if the Rays give up three runs or three-hundred runs. When they score only two runs, a win probably isn’t in the cards. They are now 3-20 when they score twice in a game. I’m not so confident that you can expect success, when you butt heads against a team that is 45-2 when they give up two (or fewer) runs in a game. Please, allow the screen shot (below) to baffle you. If it speaks to anything, it’s the sheer amount of opportunities that the Rays had.
No, this is straight up horrible baseball. Tampa Bay now find themselves 20-25 in one run games…in games they should have won no less. And to think that halfway through September, the Rays have better combined power numbers than they did in August; a month when they went 17-11, while playing their best baseball since April.
Let’s not pretend that the game wasn’t terribly mismanaged, because it was. Joe Maddon made some very questionable choices which ultimately sank the Rays. Most notably, I can recall three really big situations that could have ended differently, had Maddon acted accordingly.
1. With the bases juiced in a tie game, Maddon allowed Jose Molina to hit. It bears mentioning that Molina’s power numbers are terrible, as is his batting average. Posting a chilly .201 BA/.265. OBP/310. SLG/.575 OPS/.257 wOBA line, what more could Maddon expect out of the swarthy catcher? Then factor in that there were seven left handed options sitting on the bench, with Sam Fuld and Luke Scott being the best of them, and that we are talking about a high leverage situation in a tight game where runs were at a premium. And what did Molina have to show for his at-bat? A slow grounder to first for the easy out. It makes the blood boil, doesn’t it?
2. The game was still tied in the seventh with the Rays were threatening to score the go ahead run, with BJ Upton on second and no outs. Ahem…another situation where pinching one of those left handed batters would have greatly increased the odds of a hit against the tough righty, Darren O’Day. Maddon, instead, allowed the right handed Ben Francisco to step into the box against a pitcher who righties have posted a .201 BA/.273 OBP/.343 SLG/.266 wOBA against. Also, Francisco had never faced O’Day either. O’Day ultimately schooled Francisco, who struck out swinging. And to add insult to injury, Sam Fuld replaced Francisco in left field in the bottom of the inning.
3. Then the ninth inning happened. With one out, Jeff Keppinger singled to center. Maddon replaced Keppinger with the speedy Rich Thompson, who promptly stole second on a very close play. Evan Longoria stepped to the plate in a very Longo situation. He hit a dribbler up the third base line, forcing Manny Machado to charge the ball. Machado couldn’t get Longoria at first, so he turned and fired the ball to third where Thompson had taken too wide of a turn. Machado caught Thompson in a run down, ending not only the inning, but any other threat the Rays may have had in a very Willy Aybar like running gaffe.
Dustin, of the blog, Rays the Stakes said it best,
Yeah. Molina should never have come up to bat with the bases loaded in the 6th, Fuld (or any of the lefties) should’ve pinch-hit for Ben Francisco against (former Gator closer and righty killer) Darren O’Day, plus why not use Rodney in the 9th? Why not let Davis go more than one inning, so you can use guys like Peralta later? Whatever. The Rays had their chances and failed to cash them in. Doing so dropped their odds of making the post-season from about 50% to 39.3% according to Coolstandings. For the record, the odds coming into this series were up around 70%.
This brings us to the third game of this three game set. The Rays will try to salvage things before they head to the Bronx for another three game series. Buck Showalter announced that Wei-Yin Chen (12-9, 4.06 ERA) will toe the rubber for the O’s against Jeremy Hellickson. Chen only lasted 4.2 innings in his last start against the Yankees, relenting seven earned runs on the backs of six hits, including three homers. The Rays have beaten the O’s with Chen on the mound twice before, and will hope to pounce on him tonight.
Then again, the Rays have put up some terrible numbers against Chen in 62 total at-bats. Posting a .194 BA/.286 OBP/.210 SLG/.495 OPS line against, only Sam Fuld (2-5, BB), Jeff Keppinger (3-6, RBI), Luke Scott (1-3, 2 RBI), and Ben Zobrist (3-8) have had much success off of Chen. One one hand, Tampa Bay is 2-1 with Chen on the mound. Then again, they were shut out the last time they faced the rookie LHP. Cough, perhaps the reintroduction of Desmond Jennings at the top of the lineup will offer the Rays some sort of a spark. We’ll post the starting lineup when it becomes available.
Rays 9/13/12 Starting Lineup
TBA