Matz happy with pitch execution despite unfortunate result

LOS ANGELES -- This is the way things are going for Steven Matz and the Rays’ bullpen lately.

Matz retired six of the eight batters he faced on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. Struck out Shohei Ohtani. Got through Andy Pages, Mookie Betts, Max Muncy and Kyle Tucker without incident. Held Freddie Freeman to a softly hit single. Threw 15 of his 20 pitches for strikes and didn’t walk anybody.

The veteran left-hander took the loss in the Rays’ 4-3 defeat against the Dodgers because of one pitch, and he couldn’t even find fault with that first-pitch sinker to pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas besides the outcome: a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning of the series opener.

“That was my plan. I was going to attack him,” Matz said. “I wanted to throw a fastball in and go from there, and he beat me to the spot and put a good swing on it.”

That swing proved to be the difference as the Rays lost for the 13th time in their last 20 games. That stretch has taken the Rays from 5 1/2 games ahead in the AL East to 1 1/2 games behind the division-leading Yankees at 41-28.

It was another frustrating turn for Matz, who was removed from Tampa Bay’s rotation after a couple of rough outings in which he was working with diminished fastball velocity. The Rays hoped a stint in the bullpen would freshen him up, but he’s now given up five runs (four earned) in three relief appearances and surrendered homers in back-to-back outings.

“Obviously he's going through it a little bit, with getting hit and maybe some unfortunate things just not going his way right now,” manager Kevin Cash said. “But I like the way he threw the ball over the course of the two innings.”

With their bullpen exhausted by a handful of short starts and left-hander Ian Seymour moving into more of a bulk-inning role in what used to be Matz’s rotation spot, the Rays turned to Matz after starter Nick Martinez gave them 5 1/3 innings and lefty Cam Booser got out of the sixth with a pair of strikeouts.

After retiring Dalton Rushing to begin the seventh, Matz threw a 93.8 mph sinker up and in to Rojas, trying to get ahead in the count and confident he could do so in that spot. But Rojas swatted it to left field for the Dodgers’ first pinch-hit homer of the season, much to the delight of the sellout crowd in Chavez Ravine.

“It's just kind of the way it's been going for me this past month or so,” Matz said. “Everything else was pretty sharp, attacking the strike zone, and the one pitch that he put a pretty good swing on -- that was the pitch I wanted to throw, and I executed it.”

It was a similar story for Martinez, who had one tough sequence in the second inning but was otherwise excellent as he struck out six, allowed five hits and walked just one batter.

After giving up a double to Betts and a single to Muncy in the second, Martinez challenged Tucker with a full-count changeup, located down and away but in the strike zone. Tucker swatted it over the right-field fence for a game-tying homer.

“I thought I made a good pitch,” Martinez said, “and he made a better swing.”

Those two swings produced more offense than the Rays could muster, despite an encouraging start. With two outs in the first, Junior Caminero ripped a double to right-center field, then Ryan Vilade launched a first-pitch cutter from left-hander Eric Lauer a Statcast-projected 422 feet to left field.

The Rays tacked on another run in the second, when Nick Fortes and Taylor Walls dropped consecutive bunts with two runners on and nobody out.

“That was good to see,” Vilade said.

The Rays only had two good chances to score after that. In the third, Jonathan Aranda was on second base with two outs and Ben Williamson at the plate. Williamson hit a single to right field, but Aranda was sent home by third-base coach Brady Williams and easily thrown out at the plate by Tucker.

“Tucker's got a cannon for an arm and makes a great throw. I agree with [and] support Brady sending him,” Cash said. “They made a great play.”

Vilade led off the eighth with a single to right off reliever Will Klein, and pinch-runner Chandler Simpson advanced to third on a pair of groundouts. The Dodgers then turned to left-hander Alex Vesia to face the left-handed-hitting Cedric Mullins, who flied out to center.

“He had a really good at-bat. He smoked that ball to center field,” Cash said. “Things just didn't go our way.”