T-Mobile Park has been a house of horrors for the Rays the last few days.

The Tampa Bay Rays look to end their four-game skid on Saturday with Josh Fleming on the bump. This contest follows a disastrous 5-1 loss on Friday.

The Rays enter play at 43-28 on the season, 15-games over .500. This, after they hit a high-water mark of 19-games over .500 with a three-game lead in the American League East. Despite the poor spate of play, Tampa Bay still holds the top spot in the Division by a half-game over Boston.

Tampa Bay is now 1-4 on their current road trip and in the throes of their first sub-.500 road trip since the first week of the season. Seattle has been a house of horrors for the Rays, who are 3-11 in their last 14 games at T-Mobile park dating back to 2016. Those three wins came in 2019. Meanwhile, Seattle is back to .500 and has won five of six overall.

Micahel Wacha gave up five runs on 11 hits and a walk while fanning two across 3-2/3 innings on Friday. As expected, Wacha was unable to go deep into the game. He tossed 77 pitches (21 inefficient pitches per inning) and induced just three swinging strikes. Most of the damage came in a six-hit, four-run, 27-pitch first inning, and Wacha couldn’t even make it through the fourth inning. The veteran right-hander conceded that his stuff wasn’t the sharpest it’s been all season, although he thought he had enough to get the job done … I’d imagine the results throw cold water on that, but what do I know? I digress.

They definitely hit the pitches where they were pitched. If it was in, they pulled it. If it was away, they went with it. Credit to those guys. They had a good approach going in there. They found the holes, found the open spots and were able to put them there. I’ve got to do a better job making those two-strike pitches whenever I do get in those counts.

— Michael Wacha

Wacha now owns a 6.92 ERA over his last five appearances.

Given that Tampa Bay has had to lean on the bullpen a great deal due to Tyler Glasnow’s elbow injury (more on Glasnow in Noteworthiness), Mike Brosseau was optioned following the game with the expectation that the team will recall a pitcher for tonight’s contest.

In so doing, they have recalled Drew Rasmussen, who will be making his team debut. Acquired in the Willy Adames trade, Rasmussen has been dominant in Durham, allowing just five hits and two walks against 42 batters across 11-1/3 innings of work. He’s punched out 23.

I’d argue that it would also make sense to recall Luis Patiño in the near future, potentially slot Collin McHugh — who has surrendered just one run in his last 21 innings since coming off the Injured List — into the rotation, and put Wacha back into a lower-profile role. Yet, we will have to see how much faith Kevin Cash has in Wacha while we wait on some sort of change.

The New What Next

The Rays will turn to Josh Fleming (6-4, 3.20 ERA) in the third game of the series on Saturday, pitching opposite of rookie Logan Gilbert (2-2, 4.13 ERA).

Josh Fleming allowed just one walk and struck out three across four scoreless innings on Sunday against Baltimore. Michael Wacha opened the game and allowed a run in two innings before Fleming took over on the mound. Tampa Bay took over the lead on Fleming’s watch, and he was able to pick up his sixth win of the season. The southpaw has a 3.20 ERA and a 4.17 FIP on the season, with a 1.03 WHIP and 2.54 K/BB across 56-1/3 innings this season.

Logan Gilbert tossed 6-2/3 innings of one-run ball on Sunday against Cleveland, allowing four hits and a walk while fanning six. Gilbert began his big-league career with two consecutive losses but has bounced back since, surrendering two runs or fewer in each of his last four appearances, going 2-0 with a 2.55 ERA in that span. Gilbert maintains a 4.13 ERA and a 3.66 FIP on the season, with a 1.13 WHIP and a 3.68 K/BB across 28-1/3 innings. He relies primarily on a 95 mph four-seam fastball with arm-side movement and an 81 mph slider with two-plane action, while also mixing in a 74 mph curveball with sharp downward bite and primarily 12-6 movement and a 79 mph changeup that dives down out of the zone.

You can read about the series in our preview, while the starting lineup and Noteworthiness are below.

Rays 6/19/21 Starting Lineup

  1. Arozarena DH
  2. Choi 1B
  3. Díaz 3B
  4. Meadows LF
  5. Margot RF
  6. Wendle 2B
  7. Wals SS
  8. Zunino C
  9. Kiermaier CF
  10. Fleming LHP

Noteworthiness

— Kevin Cash and Tyler Glasnow are encouraged after the right-hander’s secondary opinion exam, which took place in Dallas on Friday.

Glasnow sought more information after being diagnosed on Tuesday with a partially torn UCL and a flexor strain. The Rays’ manager said Glasnow will be shut down from throwing for about four weeks when he’ll start playing catch again.

His version was that (the tear) was more around the bone, so we’re going to do some bone treatment, along with rest, and see if he bounces back a little bit quicker. That doesn’t change his timetable. We’re not going to know anything different until that four- to six-(week) mark of when we start playing catch or start doing (plyometric exercises) of some sort. He’s got a long way to go. But I was encouraged by it.

— Kevin Cash

Per Glasnow, doctors did not recommend Tommy John surgery to address the injury, although he mentioned that he’d “have to try to rehab to come back in the playoffs.”

According to the Rays’ skipper, it’s still too early to tell when Glasnow might be back.

I feel better today than I did when he came out of the game in Chicago. I think that’s the best I could give on that.

— Kevin Cash

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