BUFFALO, N.Y. -- When the Rays are going right, they tend to be opportunistic. They capitalize on opponents’ errors. They make the right moves, come up with timely hits and come through with clutch plays in the field. Earlier this season, all the little things added up to a big stretch of winning baseball.
Right now, though?
“Nothing's coming that easy for us,” manager Kevin Cash said before the Rays’ 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon at Sahlen Field. “We're not creating our own breaks, but we're not doing a good enough job -- or haven't done a good enough job -- of preventing them.”
That played out again in the sixth inning Saturday, when Toronto turned a 1-1 score into a five-run lead. And it led to the Rays’ fifth straight loss, their second-longest losing streak of the season and one in which they’ve been outscored, 42-17. They have now lost 12 of their last 16 games, falling a season-high five games behind the Red Sox in the American League East.
“At the end of the day, when good teams start to go sideways a little bit, I think that's a lot of what happens. Everything gets magnified,” Cash said afterward. “A couple breaks that were going your way a lot are no longer there for you. There's no finger pointing. It's all five being pointed at all of us right now. We're just not getting it done. But we will.”
For five innings Saturday, it looked like they would. Starter Shane McClanahan allowed a leadoff homer to George Springer in the second inning but settled down after that, cruising into the sixth inning. And right fielder Manuel Margot tied it up in the fourth, blasting a solo shot to left for only the Rays’ second hit off right-hander Ross Stripling.
McClanahan took the mound to begin the sixth and retired Bo Bichette before giving up a 117.3-mph double to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. McClanahan then walked Springer, at which point he was pulled despite having thrown only 71 pitches. McClanahan worked six full innings in each of his last two starts, and he had pitched well before a brief blip in his third matchup against two of the Jays’ best hitters, but Cash called upon right-handed slider specialist Matt Wisler.
“We're all competitors, and we all want to win. So I mean, obviously I wanted the ball, I wanted to keep pitching, but at the end of the day, I have to respect and understand why they pulled me,” McClanahan said. “I'm not going to question Cashy's decision at all. I trust him. So as much as I wanted the ball, I understand why he took me out.”
The move didn’t work out, although the Rays had their chances to get out of the inning. Teoscar Hernández reached on an infield single to load the bases. Up came Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who slapped a grounder to third baseman Joey Wendle. Looking to get the out at home and keep the game tied, Wendle instead threw wide of catcher Mike Zunino, allowing Guerrero to score.
It was another out-of-character moment, the Rays’ sure-handed infielder committing an error on a play he’d normally make with ease.
“I think that was the right decision to go home there. Just didn't execute,” Wendle said. “I could have probably set my feet a little bit more. I just cut the throw a little bit, and it took Z a little bit wide, and he wasn't able to handle it. It's just a play I have to execute better.”
It didn’t get any better from there, though. Cavan Biggio dropped a two-run single just inside the left-field line, and after Gurriel Jr. ran into an out at third base, Wisler served up a two-run shot to Santiago Espinal. Kevin Kiermaier drove in two runs in the ninth to make it a three-run game, but the Rays’ early lack of offense and poor sixth inning sent them to another frustrating loss -- their 10th straight on the road.
“It seems like things that we're usually pretty solid at, we're not right now. When you compound that with some of the mistakes we've been making and [a] lack of capitalizing on opportunities, I think that equals losses,” Wendle said. “Not to mention a great-hitting team who's seeing the ball really well right now, and they ran out two arms that threw the ball well, as well. So I think it's just a combination of all that.”
The foundation of the Rays’ success has been and will continue to be run prevention -- their pitching and defense -- which makes lapses like that seem uncomfortably out of character. They’ve had one of the AL’s best pitching staffs this season, and their defense is considered the best in the Majors by most metrics.
However, they’ve become part of the routine during this tough stretch. Tampa Bay has now given up five runs or more in 10 of its last 15 games.
“Frustration is a good word. We are frustrated,” Cash said. “These guys have set a pretty high bar for themselves. They expect to win. And on top of that, they expect to be in every game. We all do. And there's been some games that we're just not really in. Encouraging that we got the three runs there at the end [when] KK knocked in a couple, but we have not played to our level that we've set here for quite some time.”