There are nights you blown out. There are nights that slip away on a late error. They are nights when an umpire’s call goes the wrong way or a ball bounces strangely or a fly ball is lost in the sun. Then there are days such as Sunday, when the Tampa Bay Rays lost an especially painful game to the Oakland A’s. Danny Valencia hit three home runs to lead the A’s to a 7-6 comeback win over the Rays,…
You might have expected a pitching performance like this from the Tampa Bay Rays all along. You might have expected the stuff. You might have expected the two-hitter. You might have expected the shutout. But would you ever expect it from Matt Andriese? Andriese was masterful Saturday now, throwing a two-hit shutout against the Oakland A’s. Only Matt McBride and Danny Valencia got singles against Andriese, who struck out five. It was the first career shutout for Andriese and an…
The Tampa Bay Rays got to come home Friday night. Unfortunately, their baserunners didn’t get to. The Rays dropped the first game of a three-game homestand to the Oakland A’s, 6-3. Oakland hit four home runs in the game, which lowered the Rays’ record to 15-18. Oakland scored four times before the Rays ever came to bat, most of them scoring on a home run by Danny Valencia,who hit two out. They were his second and third homers of the…
The Tampa Bay Rays left this one somewhere on base. Maybe on third. Maybe on second. Regardless, it was the failure to take advantage of opportunities that doomed the Rays in their third straight defeat, a loss that left the team at 15-17 as it prepares to return home. The Rays lost 6-5 in 11 innings on a home run by Seattle‘s Chris Iannetta, but they flirted with going ahead after Kevin Kiermaier’s home run in the top of the ninth.…
The Tampa Bay Rays keep hitting the ball a long way. They also keep having very little to show for it. Take Tuesday night, when Tampa Bay got three home runs in its game against Seattle … which accounted for three runs. The Mariners, on the other hand, hit two out and scored five runs off it in a 6-4 victory. It’s been that way all year. The Rays came into the game hitting .225, their worst to this point of the season by…
If Felix Hernandez is the King, then what regal nickname should be bestowed on shortstop Ketel Marte? While Hernandez was as regal as always, it was Marte who delivered the knockout shot against the Tampa Bay Rays in a 5-3 victory. The Seattle Mariners‘ Marte had four hits on the night, including the winning three-run homer in the sixth. Tampa Bay, as a team, had only four hits. Two of them were home runs by Corey Dickerson and Evan Longoria,…
A sweep of the Angels and a move above .500 have elevated the Tampa Bay Rays into the 15th spot in the Bleacher Report Power Rankings. That isn’t as good as the Rays want to be — it’s out of the playoffs, for instance — but it’s an improvement of four spots from a week ago. Other American League East teams include the Baltimore Orioles (seventh) and Boston Red Sox (eighth). The Yankees are 21st and the Blue Jays 19th.…