ST. PETERSBURG — For the primary time this 12 months, there was no postgame get together within the house clubhouse at Tropicana Field. Nobody acknowledged the gamers of the sport or consumed any celebratory drinks. There was no booming music.
The Rays suffered their first house lack of the season on Tuesday evening, ending their record-breaking begin at Tropicana Field with a 5-0 loss to the Astros.
“It was a little weird walking in there right there with no music or anything like that,” supervisor Kevin Cash stated. “But I’m guessing they’ll get the music back on soon.”
On Monday, Tampa Bay turned the primary staff within the Modern Era (since 1900) to win 14 consecutives video games at house to start a season. But that streak — in addition to an total six-game successful streak — lastly concluded with a forgettable efficiency towards the defending World Series champions.
In shedding for simply the fourth time in 24 video games, the Rays had been shut out for the primary time this season.
“It’s definitely different. This team has been really good here — I mean, really good in general,” starter Drew Rasmussen stated. “But it’s definitely different not to have music playing.”
Rasmussen gave up a career-high-tying 5 earned runs after surrendering six hits (together with 4 doubles) in a seven-batter span within the fifth inning. Tampa Bay’s protection didn’t assist Rasmussen’s trigger, both, as left fielder Randy Arozarena misinterpret a line drive that, if caught, may have restricted the harm to 3 runs.
But the true concern, and maybe the largest shock, was that the Rays’ offense lastly had an off evening. Tampa Bay completed with two walks, eight strikeouts and a season-low-tying 5 hits towards Houston.
The Majors’ high lineup to this point this season merely couldn’t get something going towards Astros starter Luis Garcia, who leaned on his cutter as he held the Rays to 3 hits whereas putting out seven over six innings.
“He can really spin the baseball really well,” Cash stated. “He’s got, like, three different breaking balls that he can throw in the zone whenever he wants and throw out of the zone kind of when he wants. It just felt like he kept us off-balance all night.”
Rasmussen received off to a shaky begin, loading the bases on two walks and a single with one out within the first inning, however he recovered properly after that. He received out of a 27-pitch first with out permitting a run, then wanted solely 37 pitches to finish the following three innings.
Rasmussen started the fifth by putting out Martín Maldonado, however then the inning received away from him. Mauricio Dubón and Jeremy Peña hit back-to-back doubles to place Houston on the board, and Peña scored on a Kyle Tucker single to heart. José Abreu then pulled a two-strike, two-out double down the left-field line to present the Astros a 3-0 lead.
Up got here Corey Julks, who smashed a 100.5 mph line drive to left. Arozarena took a couple of steps in on the ball, crouched after which leapt, stretching his glove within the air because the ball sailed over his head and bounced towards the wall for one more RBI double.
“I thought it was a lower liner,” Arozarena stated via communications supervisor Elvis Martinez. “I took two steps forward instead of back, and it went over me.”
The rally continued as Jake Meyers hit a two-hop grounder up the center, which bounced off a sliding Wander Franco’s glove for an RBI single that made it a 5-0 sport. Having thrown 94 pitches to report 14 outs, Rasmussen then gave strategy to reliever Heath Hembree, who completed the inning.
“You miss over the big part of the plate in leverage counts, and damage tends to get done,” stated Rasmussen, who allowed a career-high-tying 9 hits. “They found some holes and they were able to exploit some bad pitches, and that’s just how this game works. But it is one of those things where we just continued to attack, and unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”
While their bullpen put up zeroes the remainder of the best way, the Rays couldn’t dig themselves out of a five-run gap. Franco’s Major League-leading twelfth double was their solely extra-base hit. They solely had three at-bats, and no hits, with a runner in scoring place.
For the primary time in 15 video games, the house staff’s bats and clubhouse audio system had been quiet.
“We’ve done some really good stuff this year, and we’ve had a lot of fun doing so,” Rasmussen stated. “It’ll be nice to get back on track tomorrow.”
Content Source: www.mlb.com