Partying on the party deck on a beautiful Friday night in Seattle. (Photo Credit: “Replay” Dave Drobach)

The Tampa Bay Rays battled back from a three-run deficit on Friday and inevitably found themselves in their second extra-innings ball-game in less than a week. They, however, couldn’t overcome the Seattle Mariners, dropping the 13-inning series opener, 4-3 — consequently falling back to the .500 mark. The Mariners are now 17-9 in one-run games, and 6-0 in extra innings.


What a ride! Source: FanGraphs

Seattle struck first, taking a three-run lead before an out was recorded in the fourth inning. After Sergio Romo pitched 1-1/3 scoreless frames as the opener, Austin Pruitt got into, and out of, a jam in the second, although Seattle broke through in the third inning.

With two outs, Jean Segura beat out a slow grounder to short before Kyle Seager and Nelson Cruz followed with back-to-back line drive singles, giving the Mariners a one-run lead.

Then in the bottom of the fourth, Ben Gamel sent a sharp line drive the other way, past a diving Mallex Smith, who had late jump on the play but tried to make his best KK impersonation and missed by a few inches, resulting in a triple. Ryon Healy hit a weak single to center to drive in Gamel. Then another in-between liner (this time toward right-center) lead to another Smith dive and miss, as the ball bounded toward the wall.

But Austin Pruitt tightened up his game and retired 11 consecutive batters — fanning three of them — and did not allow a ball out of the infield.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay collected three hits in the first two innings against Mike Leake, including leadoff singles in each frame, but did not score. The Rays’ hitters came to the plate ready to hack away at Leake, the right-hander who pounds the zone. He may not be an imposing hurler, yet Leake has been very good of late, and played off the Rays’ aggressiveness at the plate. He coxed many a whiff, induced lots of weak contact at the worst times, and worked quickly and efficiently.

Tampa Bay didn’t get another hit until the fifth inning, when Carlos Gomez and Johnny Field went back-to-back with solo home runs to left-center — the seventh for Gomez, and sixth for Field. They pulled the Rays to within a run.

Down by a run to start the ninth, Tampa Bay rallied against closer Edwin Diaz to even up the score. Joey Wendle walked then stole second as Wilson Ramos struck out. Wendle was subsequently wild pitched to third before Matt Duffy fell behind 1-2. Yet Duffy lined an RBI single to left, which plated Field and tied the game at three apiece. Duffy wound up at third on a run-and-hit single by Daniel Robertson, however, Diaz recovered to strike both Brad Miller and Gomez out to keep the game tied. Jose Alvarado worked around an infield single in the bottom of the frame to send the contest to extras for the second time in four days.

Juan Nicasio and Dan Altavilla followed Diaz and posted scoreless innings in the tenth and the eleventh, while Roenis Elias did the same in the 12th and the 13th. Tampa Bay was able to get a runner into scoring position when Field singled to left and swiped second with two outs in the 12th, however, Smith struck out to end the threat.

After Alvarado and Chaz Roe paired up to put up a zero in the 10th, and Roe worked the 11th — punctuated by a swinging strikeout of Mike Zunino on a filthy slider (see below) — the Mariners broke through in the 13th against Matt Andriese, who pitched a scoreless 12th.

Mitch Haniger worked the count full against Andriese, then homered to right-center, ending the four-hour plus marathon.

The New What Next

Game two of the series is on Saturday. Chris Archer (3-3, 4.29 ERA) will get the start for Tampa Bay, pitching opposite of left-hander Marco Gonzalez (5-3, 3.60 ERA).

Chris Archer got the start for Tampa Bay on Monday, and threw six innings of shutout baseball. He allowed four hits, walked two and struck out seven. Even though his slider was inconsistent all day — at times it showed good tilt and finish, while at other times it stayed up in the zone and looked flat — his fastball was more on point, which made his rolling sliders effective as off speed pitches. Even so, his fastball command was erratic as well, as Archer threw just 18 of 35 heaters for strikes, and just 10 of 22 first pitch strikes over his six innings of work. The right-hander is 1-2 with a 2.80 ERA in six career starts against the Mariners, and 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA in three starts at SafeCo Field.

Marco Gonzales allowed one run (un-earned) on four hits and four walks over 6-2/3 innings of work on Monday. Gonzalez has given up just two unearned runs over 19-1/3 innings in his last three starts and is 4-1 with a 2.08 ERA over his last seven, while going six-plus innings in six of those outings. This season the 26 year-old southpaw he has relied primarily on a firm 85 mph changeup with slight armside fade and natural sink, a whiffy 91 mph sinker, and a 79 mph worm killer curveball, while also mixing in n 88 mph cutter good “rise” and strong cutting action, and a 91 mph four-seam fastball. Key Matchup: Wilson Ramos (2-2)

You can read about the series in our preview.

The New What Next: Rays vs Mariners — a series preview

Rays 6/2/18 Starting Lineup

Robertson SS
Cron 1B
Duffy 3B
Ramos DH
Field CF
Refsnyder LF
Gomez RF
Arroyo 2B
Sucre C
Archer RHP

Noteworthiness

— Topper said it best:

Manager Kevin Cash has seen too many baserunning mistakes and says the Rays have to do something about it.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” Cash said after Friday’s 4-3, 13-inning loss to the Mariners. “Look, we play close games and those things are magnified. We’ve learned that over many discussions talking about it.

“We’ve got to kind of go back to the drawing board on some of the baserunning.”

The Rays made four outs on the bases Friday, and it was hard to say which was worse.

Cash seemed to absolve Mallex Smith of blame for being caught stealing to end the first. Matt Duffy was caught in an odd double play in the seventh. Daniel Robertson got picked off first after drawing a two-out walk in the 11th. Joey Wendle was doubled off first to end the 13th.

“It hasn’t been good,” Cash said. “I visited it a couple games ago. It hasn’t been good and it shows up when you’re playing tight games, extra inning games. All those little mistakes prevent you from scoring runs.”

— Mallex Smith’s energy is contagious, but he consistently gets beaten in the box (especially of late), on the base paths, and in the field. Had Smith played the above mentioned hits on a hop instead, the damaged likely would have been mitigated. Perhaps it’s time to start him in left-field, where there’s less ground to cover, and Johnny Field in center.

— Holy right-handed batting order, Batman.

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