The Rays came into this early-season 4-game series with Boston 5 games out of first behind the Red Sox, and they left it 7 behind after dropping 3 of 4 in perhaps the worst sustained exhibition of pitching I've seen from this team in this save or perhaps any of my Rays saves. They were battered for 32 runs on 65 hits in the 4 games and needed to score 12 to win the one game they did. The irony is that this might be the best offense I've had in the save but the pitching has been so bad by orders of magnitude that it doesn't matter.
The opener was a heartbreaker as the Rays scored twice in bottom of the 9th to force the game to extra innings before losing in 13, 7-6 on Ben Rortvedt's homer off
Landon Knack (0-2), his third of the game.
Joe Ryan was terrible again (3.1 6 3 3 1 2) with 3 solo homers allowed, and had to leave with back tightness, probably from tensing up after each gopher ball. The offense kept them in it, with
Diego Cartaya hitting a pair of RBI doubles including one in the 9th, and
Alex Kirilloff drove in 3 runs.
If a Rays team in this save scored 9 runs, they'd be about 99% to win but this year they're just as likely to be consolation runs as Boston battered Rays pitching again in a 10-9 loss. JT Ginn was brutal, and is done with the rotation - his spot for now will go to Slade Cecconi. Look at this start to the season for Ginn (ignore the 3/28 start that was spring training):
Amazing that anyone could be this bad. Cecconi (0-1) actually took the loss as the Rays went ahead 6-5 after 5 before he allowed 2 runs in the 6th. The horrible pitching wasted a career day from
Wander Franco, who was 5-5 with a triple, homer (#3) and 4 RBI while
Kelly Crumpton hit #7,
Diego Cartaya had another nice game with his first MLB homer among 3 hits, and
Alex Kirilloff drove in 3 more runs.
Pablo Lopez made his Rays debut in the rotation and while he wasn't all that great, at least he got the win as the Rays outscored the Red Sox 12-6. Lopez went 6.2 9 5 5 1 3 which counts as a gem these days, and he was helped by a big game from
Dominic Scavone, who had a 3-run homer in the first (#3) and a double, with
Alex Kirilloff (8 RBI in 3 games),
Andrew Greckel and
Victor Robles each driving in a pair while Wander Franco had 3 more hits, giving him 8 straight at one point.
Transaction: We claimed
Keylan Kilgore on waivers from Colorado - the lefty has 55/60/60 ratings and we can use all the help we can get.
Jared Wetherbee was sent to Durham to make room.
Shane Panzini had been our best pitcher but even he wasn't immune to the rot (or the Red Sox) as he was hit for 6 runs in a 9-5 loss. He gave up 3 in the first, appeared to settle down, then gave up 3 more in the 5th to finish 4 10 6 6 2 4 with 3 homers allowed to suffer his first loss as a Ray.
Kelly Crumpton homered again (#8) in a losing cause and
Alex Kirilloff made it 9 RBI for the series by driving one in.
Team record: 8-12. Next up: 3 games in Baltimore.