The Tampa Bay Rays losing streak reached six games as they dropped an extra innings affair with the Kansas City Royals. The Royals, streaking in the opposite direction, have now won their eighth straight game.
“Very frustrating. Not something we want to dwell on and continue to have these conversations. We’d rather be talking about wins, but right now they’re tough to come by,” Rays Manager Kevin Cash said after the game. “Confident the guys will keep their heads up and we’ll just come out and do what we can tomorrow.”
The Rays battled back from behind three separate times, but ultimately fell in 11 innings after the Royals plated three runs in the top of the frame.
“They put pressure on us. They continued to add on. They’re pretty athletic, they do some things to get on base, they can bunt, and unfortunately we couldn’t get anything going,” said Cash.
Reliever Richard Lovelady fell to 0-2 as a Ray in just his fourth outing since joining the club. In the 11th, Lovelady allowed a leadoff double to Nelson Velazquez, scoring pinch-runner Freddy Fermin. Adam Frazier followed with a ground ball that went off the glove of the diving Amed Rosario and scored Velazquez from second. Maikel Garcia later added another insurance run with a 2-out RBI single.
“Just a failure to go 0-2 and execute. That’s all it was,” a dejected Lovelady said after the game. “I got to 0-2 quick and just left it up.”
The Rays did fight back from 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 deficits, but never took the lead.
Rays starting pitcher Aaron Civale has had a difficult start to his season, but appeared to take a step in the right direction today. He pitched an effective five innings, allowing two runs and not factoring in the decision.
“I feel like I mixed both fastballs in there, both breaking balls in there and just did a good job attacking,” Civale said about his outing.
The Royals got the scoring started when Velazquez, who later had the game-winning RBI, homered on the first pitch he saw from Civale in the top of the 2nd to give the Royals an early 1-0 lead.
The Royals tacked on another run to make it 2-0 on a Bobby Witt, Jr. RBI single in the 3rd inning. But after loading the bases with one out, Civale got Salvador Perez to ground into a double play to limit the Royals to just one run in the inning.
This was Civale’s 8th consecutive start without earning the victory, dating back to April 9 at Los Angeles. The Rays have lost six of his last seven starts dating back to his April 21st start in Yankee Stadium.
Jonathan Aranda got things started for the Rays offensively when he crushed a 416-foot home run off the C-ring in right field to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the 4th. It was his first home run of the 2024 campaign.
The Rays were able to even things up at 2-2 in the bottom of the 5th on an RBI groundout to third from Isaac Paredes, scoring Richie Palacios.
The Royals pulled back ahead in the 7th inning after Garrett Cleavinger allowed a single to Adam Frazier and walked the pinch-hitter Garrett Hampson and Hunter Renfroe to load the bases. After a bizarre incident where Kyle Isbel fouled a pitch off his face and needed to leave the game, pinch-hitter Dairon Blanco was able to score Renfroe with a sacrifice fly to left field.
Cleavinger, who entered the game with a 15.2 inning scoreless inning streak, avoided picking up his first loss of the season when the Rays immediately responded in the bottom of the 7th inning. After Jose Siri was hit by a pitch and Richie Palacios walked, Harold Ramirez pinch-hit for Brandon Lowe and singled in Siri on the first pitch from Royals lefty Angel Zerpa. Unfortunately for the home team, after an Isaac Paredes walk loaded the bases, Yandy Diaz pinch-hit for Aranda, but grounded into a double play to end the threat. It stayed a 3-3 tie until extra innings.
The Royals were able to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th inning after a pair of Kevin Kelly walks loaded the bases. Lovelady came out of the pen and got a weak fly ball from Pasquantino, but it was deep enough for Renfroe to tag up and score from 3rd.
In the bottom of the 10th, Jonny DeLuca had a clutch game-tying RBI double with two outs and the Rays again tied it up. It was the fifth time this season the Rays had a game-tying or go-ahead RBI when down to their final out.
But the Rays were not able to overcome their final three run deficit in the 11th, and fall to 25-28 on the season.
“We’re in a situation right now where we have to be pretty perfect to find a way to win a game, we haven’t done that in awhile,” said Cash.
The Rays need to find a way to get back to their winning ways soon. But the players still expressed optimism.
“This is a team that doesn’t give up. We have a lot of confidence in this team,” said Aranda postgame.
“Tomorrow we just have to come back and play hard again,” said Ramirez. “Everybody knows what we’ve got to do to play better. We just have to go out there and keep competing. Eliminate the past, starting tomorrow.”