We saw a lot of games like this earlier in the season; hopefully we won’t see many more.
At first it looked like an easy Rays win.
The Rays scored six runs in the top of the second inning, as first Aranda and then Josh Lowe hit solo home runs, and Baltimore starter Tomoyuki Sugano struggled to find the plate and then struggled to miss bats when he did find the plate.
He walked Chandler Simpson, who of course then stole second. This positioned him well to score when Danny Jansen singled. One more single by Diaz and then came Brandon Lowe with what no doubt most of us thought would be the three run homer that would put the game out of reach.
But it was not, apparently, out of reach.
In the bottom of the second, Ryan Pepiot loaded the bases before giving up a two-RBI double to Coby Mayo. He got to two outs, but then allowed another two-RBI single, and the score was 6-4.
We have been talking a lot lately about how the Rays have gone from being the team with the quickest hooks in baseball, to the team whose starters routinely get into the seventh inning. But that was gone tonight. With two outs in the second inning, Cash replaced Pepiot with Mason Montgomery.
Why not let Pepiot see if he could work things out, which seems to be more generally how Cash handles his starters? Maybe it was the rain. Maybe it was the fact he was already at 48 pitches. Maybe Cash and Snyder could see something about Pepiot’s mechanics, or his demeanor, that made them concerned. He certainly didn’t look happy about leaving!
Now Montgomery is a pitcher that my pitcher-savvy friends tell me has very good stuff. He has not, however, had very good results so far this year. So while he got out of the second inning, he gave up a walk and a single in the third, an errant throw from Jansen allowed another run to score as Baltimore pulled within one run.
The Rays got a run back in the fourth, stringing together three two-out singles.
But the Rays bullpen could not hold the lead.
Eric Orze, who has generally been quite good, gave up three runs in two innings to put the Orioles up, 8-7.
He was followed by Edwin Uceta, who has generally been not very good, also gave up three runs in just .2 innings.
Forrest Whitley managed to get to two outs, and I thought well at least we’ll get one clean inning? But no, he then loaded the bases before giving up a two RBI single. He then walked another batter to load the bases yet again, prolonging our misery, after which another run scored on a Caballero error, and Whitley’s night was over. Paul Gervase then came in and when he walked Cedric Mullen, a guy hitting .214, I knew we’d crossed over from tragedy to comedy.
Indeed, Kevin Cash must have realized that we’d crossed over to comedy, because the pitcher for the bottom of the 8th inning was Jose Caballero. That went about as well as expected.
Tonight was awful, but in the long run it’s not different than losing 3-2, right? Or at least losing 3-2 while blowing through your entire bullpen.