ST. PETERSBURG -- A lot had to go wrong for the Rays to suffer a rare loss at Tropicana Field on Saturday afternoon, and a lot did go wrong in their 14-3 defeat against the Angels.
Their pitching staff gave up 11 hits, including four home runs, and six walks. They hit two batters and threw a wild pitch that resulted in Zach Neto both scoring a run and exiting with an apparent neck injury after a collision at the plate with lefty Ian Seymour. It took the Rays 183 pitches to get through nine innings as they surpassed their season-high mark for runs allowed.
“It got ugly,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Kind of a sloppy game, sloppy loss on that side.”
But ultimately, the Rays’ fifth loss in their last six games came down to four situations with the bases loaded. The Angels made the most of their opportunities with a pair of big innings, and the Rays couldn’t capitalize on their scoring opportunities.
The Rays seemed to be back on track after Friday’s seven-run seventh inning snapped a four-game losing streak, but Saturday was a strange, disjointed game from the start -- maybe even including the national anthem standoff that resulted in three ejections.
Starter Drew Rasmussen is typically the definition of stability and dependability, a virtual lock to give the Rays a good chance to win every time he takes the mound. But he was simply off in the first inning, giving up a single and back-to-back walks to load the bases with one out.
Rasmussen said he was moving too quickly down the mound in his delivery, which meant his arm wasn’t “on time.” That resulted in unusually spotty command and a 36-pitch inning, the second-longest frame of his career behind a 37-pitch first in Texas on May 30, 2022.
With the bases loaded, the right-hander got to a two-strike count against Wade Meckler but left a cutter in the strike zone and just high enough for Meckler to launch it into the right-field seats. It was the first grand slam Rasmussen has allowed in the Majors, and it immediately put Tampa Bay in a tough spot.
“It's more frustrating that in the moment you don't realize a simple adjustment that can be made,” Rasmussen said. “The inning snowballs. Once you spot a team four runs, it's just a big ask to ask the team to try and claw their way back out of that.”
Oddly enough, though, the Rays immediately had a chance to do exactly that. Yandy Díaz stayed red hot by launching a leadoff home run for the second straight game, and Tampa Bay loaded the bases on a single and two walks. But Angels lefty Reid Detmers stranded all three runners by striking out Ben Williamson then retiring Nick Fortes.
The Rays wound up going 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position on the day, an unusual performance for a team that leads the AL with a .280 average in those situations.
“We just were missing the big hit,” Fortes said. “That's kind of what we live on is timely hitting, and today we just didn't have it. It was just one of those days.”
Rasmussen fixed his mechanical flaw and breezed through two innings before allowing a run in the fourth, ending a franchise-record 48-start streak (excluding openers) in which he allowed four runs or fewer each time out. At that point, the Rays decided four innings and 70 pitches were enough for Rasmussen, who went seven innings in his last start for the first time in more than three years.
“He kind of reset, got really nasty and gave us a lot of opportunities, bought us some time to get back in the ballgame,” Cash said. “We just didn't.”
Down 6-3 in the sixth, the Rays again loaded the bases with two outs for team RBI leader Jonathan Aranda. And Aranda hit a 99.3 mph missile to right field off reliever Sam Bachman, but Jo Adell ran in to rob Aranda with a sliding catch.
“We did put together some good at-bats, and Jonny almost hit it too hard in that moment for Adell to come in there and grab it,” Cash said.
Meanwhile, the Angels kept pouring on runs. After Neto scored on a painful play at the plate in the seventh, they loaded the bases again in the ninth when Andrew Wantz walked two batters and hit another. Wantz then hit another batter, plunking Vaughn Grissom to force in a run.
After a run-scoring grounder, Adell and Oswald Peraza hit back-to-back homers to continue a frustrating, forgettable seven-run inning.
“Obviously, anytime you give up 14 runs in a game, that's a flush-it-and-move-on type of day,” Seymour said.