The Tampa Bay Rays were back at Steinbrenner Field Thursday with a matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals. Tampa Bay was looking to end their three-game losing streak.
Joe Boyle started for the Rays, and he has struggled since he became part of the rotation in July, going 0-2 with a 9.22 ERA. Sonny Gray, always a tough pitcher against the Rays, started for the Cardinals. Gray is 11-6 with a 4.30 ERA on the season.
Earlier Thursday, the Rays called up shortstop prospect Carson Williams from AAA Durham. With Taylor Walls on the DL, and Ha Seong KIm being placed on the 10-DL with back tightness, the Rays needed some extra depth at shortstop and Williams was summoned to Tampa. Williams is hitting .213 on the season with 23 homers and 55 runs batted in. He also has 20 stolen bases on the season giving him 20 steals and 20 homers for the third year in a row.
The Rays got on the board first as Chandler Simpson got things going for the Rays. Simpson singled to right, then went to second on a wild pitch. A Yandy Diaz flyout to center sent Simpson to third. Then, Brandon Lowe laid down a soft infield single. Cardinals pitcher Sonny Gray threw out Lowe at first allowing Simpson to score, and the Rays were up 1-0 after one inning.
The Cardinals came alive in the second inning, as Joe Boyle was rocked for five runs giving the Cardinals a 5-1 lead. There was a throwing error by Junior Camienero. Boyle then hit Ivan Herrera. That was followed by a wild pitch which all contributed to the Cardinals outburst in the second inning as Boyle gave up five runs on four hits and headed for the showers.
Despite allowing the five runs in two innings, Manager Kevin Cash felt that Boyle made improvements from his previous outings.
“I know it’s tough to see, but I did think, like, he took a step in a better direction today. There were obviously some things on defense that we didn’t help him out with, but I thought, you know, the strike throwing, it was better, the stuff, to be able to pitch the off speed stuff behind the count showed up.But we made too many mistakes to really overcome that.”
The Rays got two runs back in the bottom of the third. Simpson doubled to start the inning, then Yandy Diaz hit his 21st home run of the year to cut the Rays deficit to 5-3 after three innings.
In the top of the fourth, a throwing error by Brandon Lowe allowed Nathan Church to get on base. Church stole second and went to third on a hit by Lars Nootbaar. Ivan Herrera then singled to left scoring Church, putting the Cardinals up 6-3.
In the top of the fifth, the Cardinals chased Boyle after he gave up a single to Masyn Wynn, a double to Nolan Gorman, and then walked Thomas Saggese to load the bases.
Mason Montgomery followed Boyle and got Cardinals second basemen Pedro Pages to ground into a 3-2-4 double play, sending Gorman to third.
Montgomery was then able to get Nathan Church to ground out to third ending the Cardinals threat and keeping it a 6-3 game.
Garret Cleavinger worked a scoreless sixth inning. Cleavinger has now gone 12 and two thirds scoreless innings after tonight’s 1-2-3 inning.
The Rays threatened, but could not score in the sixth, and it remained 6-3 Cardinals after six frames.
Wilson Contreras greeted Rays reliever Bryan Baker with his 18th homer of the season to put the Cardinals back up by four, 7-3.
In the bottom of the seventh, Simpson scored on a fielder’s choice to make it a 7-4 game after seven innings.
Junior Camienero singled in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, but Josh Lowe struckout to end the threat.
With the loss tonight, the Rays are now 61-67, six games below .500 for the first time since June 22, 2018 when they were 34-40.
Yandy Diaz left the game with a lower hamstring problem; he will evaluated on a day to day basis.
On the positive side, Simpson has now reached safely in 10 of his last 11 games, going 17/44.