It’s been said you can’t win games if you don’t score runs. And if the Rays 2 – 0 loss (the eighth shutout of the year) to Boston Tuesday night did anything, its confirm that theory to a T. Tampa Bay wasted an outstanding 8 IP/3 H/2 R/2 ER/0 BB/9 K outing by David Price, dropping their seventh of 10 games and falling to 8.5 games behind the AL East leading Red Sox. At least you can’t blame Rays for not doing anything with RISP this time — only two runners reached second safely; James Loney in the second inning and Yunel Escobar in the eighth.
And as much as I’d like to pin the loss on Desmond Jennings sloppy fielding on Mike Napoli’s fifth inning double — a misjudgment on a hard hit fly-ball to deep center, finding the ball bouncing off Jennings’ mitt — I can’t. Sure, Boston’s sole runs can be attributed to that play. However, a two-run deficit shouldn’t feel like a chasm the width of the Grand Canyon. Blame the loss on nine strikeouts. Blame the loss on a sixth inning double play that came at a time when Tampa Bay began to ride a wave of momentum off Craig Breslow. Blame the loss on two failed stolen base attempts. Just don’t blame the loss solely on a poor play in the field.
Price did his part by keeping the game within reach on a career high 127 pitches (86 for strikes, 67%). Unfortunately all he had to show for his outing is another tally in the loss column — an undeserved loss, if I may. Price was magnificent in his eight innings of work, walking none while striking out nine (five swinging). Leading the charge with his fastball (which he threw for strikes 78% of the time), David’s command was on point. He was able to get ahead of batters early by throwing 23 of 27 first pitch strikes, inevitably setting up his put away pitch — the aforementioned deadly fastball to the border regions of the zone. Price induced weak contact when he wasn’t ringing up batters, frustrating a Red Sox team that came into the Trop averaging seven plus runs per game over a 15 game stretch.
Chalk the loss up to missed opportunities. Tampa Bay had an opportunity to send the tying run to the plate with no outs and their three best right handed bats due against LHP Craig Breslow, yet they did nothing with it. After Yunel Escobar led-off the sixth by working a walk, Joe Maddon immediately pinched David DeJesus in favor of Wil Myers. If Only good at-bats translated into runs… Though Myers was able to work a full count, he ultimately hit a chopper to short on the eighth pitch of the at bat. The only saving grace — Myers beat out the potential double play, preserving a base runner. They still had a serious threat in the works with BenZo due, but Zobrist quickly grounded out to second and Pedroia was able to tag Myers out in the base-path before completing the inning ending double play.
Then with the potential tying run on first in the seventh, The Rays lefty mashing acquisition, Delmon Young, was sent in to pinch hit for Luke Scott. Things looked promising after Young worked a 3-1 count, but as luck would have it, Young grounded out on a fastball down in the zone two pitches later, ending the inning.
An optimist, like Maddon, would go out of his/her way to remind us that there’s always tomorrow… There’s always the next game. But with a slim one game lead in the Wildcard race, those tomorrow’s and next games are quickly going the way of the buffalo.
The New What Next
Alex Cobb will play the role of stopper tonight against Ryan Dempster. The Red Sox veteran pitcher relinquished three runs in his last start against the Rays, also giving up a pair of homers. You can read about the pitching match-up here.
Rays 9/11/13 Starting Lineup
DeJesus LF
Myers RF
Zobrist 2B
Longoria 3B
Joyce DH
Jennings CF
Loney 1B
Lobaton C
Escobar SS
Cobb RHP
Noteworthiness
- In 10 starts following a loss this season, Alex Cobb is 5-1 with a 2.86 ERA.