On a damp, rainy afternoon at Steinbrenner Field, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers faced off in the finale of the three-game weekend series. The Rays were looking for a sweep this afternoon but came up short in a 4-2 loss to the Brewers.
The game was delayed 45 minutes as they waited for the weather to clear the area.
The Rays jumped on Milwaukee starter Chad Patrick in the first inning, as Chandler Simpson lined a routine single that he turned into a double. Simpson came home on a Jonathan Aranda single to put the Rays up 1-0.
The Brewers would battle back in the fourth as Christian Yelich hit his seventh home run. That was followed by a William Conteras home run, his fourth of the season, to put the Brewers up 2-1. It was just the second time this season that the Brewers have hit back-to-back home runs.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Rays battled back to tie up at two. Jonathan Aranda singled, followed by a Kameron Misner singled, sending Aranda to third. Aranda would score on a sac fly by Jose Caballero to tie the game at two. The Rays would leave runners at second and third to end the inning. It was another opportunity wasted by the Rays.
Milwaukee would claw back for a run in the top of the fifth to go up 3-2.
Drew Rasmussen worked a solid five innings, giving up three runs on four hits. The big blows were the back-to-back homers by Yelich and Conteras in the fourth inning.
It would stay 3-2 until the eighth, when Milwaukee went to work against Eric Orze. Rhys Hoskins singled, driving in another Milwaukee run to put the Brewers up 4-2.
The Milwaukee bullpen of Tyler Alexander, Abner Uribe, Joel Payamps, and Trevor Megill, the Brewers closer, kept the Rays offense in check and pulled out the 4-2 win.
Drew Rasmussen took the loss for the Rays as he fell to 1-4 on the season.
Former Ray Tyler Alexander won the game for Milwaukee; he is now 2-3 this season, while Trevor Megill picked up his seventh save.
The Rays once again could not take advantage of their limited opportunities. In the series, they were 3/24 with runners in scoring position.
Drew Rasmussen talked about the two pitches that were hit for back-to-back homers and the lack of run support.
“They were two pitches that stayed middle instead of getting to the locations that we intended, and they did damage to those mistakes. My job is not to worry about run production. My job is to go out there to execute pitch-to-pitch and keep the opponent off the board. It really was just a handful of pitches today, but the handful of pitches makes a huge difference over the course of a game.’’
Kevin Cash talked about the Rays’ offensive struggles during his post-game press conference, and you could sense the frustration in his voice.
“It’s not rolling. It’s a struggle to score runs and everybody is putting an added weight going up to the plate, trying to probably do a little bit more than they need to do and capable of at times.”
The Rays are off Monday. Then, the team will begin a six-game road trip to Toronto for three games and will then head to Miami, where they will play their in-state rivals, the Miami Marlins, in a three-game weekend series.
The Rays will then return home to play Houston, Toronto, and Minnesota.
With the loss, the Rays fell to 18-22 on the season, 4.5 games behind the New York Yankees, who are in first place.
- The Rays announced their 27th sellout in 28 home games at Steinbrenner Field with a capacity of 10,046.
- This was the Rays’ first series win since April 11-13, when they won three against the Atlanta Braves.
- Per updated Fangraphs.com projections, the Rays have a 15.7 percent chance to make the playoffs and will finish with a record of 78-84.