ST. PETERSBURG -- Over the course of three hours and eight minutes Monday night, the Rays lost their starting shortstop to a nagging left hamstring issue, their starting left fielder on a painful slide into second base and frustrating game in which they couldn’t stop a slumping Tigers lineup.
The only one of those Tampa Bay can’t expect to get back on Tuesday is the club’s 10-9 loss to Detroit in the series opener at Tropicana Field.
Shortstop Taylor Walls’ exit due to left hamstring tightness was deemed precautionary and “100 percent on me,” manager Kevin Cash said. Left fielder Chandler Simpson needed stitches but should be fine, despite significant swelling in his lower lip.
Hustling to advance to second on a wild pitch by Tigers starter Ty Madden in the fourth inning, Simpson slid headfirst toward the bag. His helmet came off his head, caromed off the base and bounced back at his face. Simpson immediately covered his mouth, which appeared to be bleeding, with his right hand.
After a visit from Cash and first assistant athletic trainer Mike Sandoval, Simpson left the game and walked into the dugout with a towel covering his face. He was replaced by pinch-runner Ryan Vilade, who remained in the game to play left field.
Simpson had stitches put in his lower lip at Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital during the game then returned to the trainer’s room, where he was being treated after the game.
“I think Chandler is gonna be OK,” Cash said. “He's gonna be in the lineup tomorrow, as we speak right now.”
That was the Rays’ second injury-related loss of the night, as Walls was replaced by pinch-hitter Oliver Dunn in the third inning, when the Rays were trailing by six runs. Walls sat out two games in Baltimore last week -- and didn’t play the first eight innings of Friday’s game against the Angels -- due to tightness in his left hamstring that the Rays will continue to monitor moving forward.
“Just figured once the game got to 6-nothing, trying to look for an opportunity to rest the hammy,” Cash said. “We'll go day to day with him.”
Walls said his hamstring felt “maybe a tick worse” Monday than it did Sunday, but he is playing with “no restrictions” and figured he could get through the game. He noted he was leaving the Trop “100 percent” expecting to play on Tuesday night, adding that he had his leg guard on to prepare for his at-bat when he was taken out of Monday’s game.
“[Cash] felt that getting me off my feet at that point, with just the condition and where I was at today, would probably be the smartest move going forward,” Walls said. “From my understanding, that's what it was for.”
As for the game itself? Painful in a different way.
The Rays were in a big hole after starter Griffin Jax gave up two runs in the first inning and four more on back-to-back-to-back homers by Dillon Dingler, Kerry Carpenter and Riley Greene in the third. Just like that, the Tigers had as many runs as they scored in their past four games combined.
Jax credited Detroit’s approach but acknowledged a few mistakes, including the 0-2 sweeper Dingler hit out and the 1-0 cutter Greene blasted to center.
“From the start, they were swinging early, but they weren't chasing,” Jax said. “They were putting some really quality at-bats together, making you come at them with your best stuff.”
But the Rays didn’t go down quietly.
In the fourth, Junior Caminero unloaded on a 2-0 sinker from Madden and cranked it out to center field. It was Caminero’s team-leading 14th home run of the season but his first since May 18.
Trailing 8-2 in the sixth, Vilade took two pitches from reliever Brenan Hanifee then obliterated a hanging slider, smashing a three-run homer off the D-ring catwalk above left field.
“We fought until the 27th out. We gave it all we had,” Caminero said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “Ultimately, in the end, it didn’t go our way, but we fought the entire time.”
The Tigers kept tacking on runs, racking up a season-high-tying 14 hits. They scored two in the eighth on consecutive RBI doubles by Dingler and Carpenter off Cole Sulser to make it a five-run game.
The Rays made it a one-run game thanks to three walks and a pair of two-run hits by Nick Fortes and Ben Williamson that deflected off the gloves of Tigers infielders, but came up short in the end. Painfully so.
“We've just got to limit runs,” Cash said. “It was good for the offense, because I know it's been challenging on the other side here lately, but to get some runs was encouraging. Just didn't sync up tonight.”