Rays Offense Goes Quietly Into The Night In Loss To Orioles

Frustrating.

Disappointing.

Aggravating.

Agitating.

Annoying.

Those are just some words that describe the feelings of today's game. David Price did all he could in throwing eight shutout innings, allowing just two hits. He was fantastic, artfully abusing the outside corner of the plate to the Orioles' right handed heavy lineup. He was denied his 15th win for the second start in a row and has given up a total of three runs in those games. Fernando Rodney pitched a scoreless ninth, but Joel Peralta allowed a run in the top of the 10th that sealed the team's fate on the afternoon. As good as the pitching was this series, no one wants to talk about that.

The one thing everyone will surly be talking about is the offense. They scored two runs all series, both coming Friday night on solo home runs. I get the anger. I get the vitriol. But...what do you want the team to do? This is who they are. Yes, we want them to be better. We expect them to be better. They can't go out and sign a whole new batch of hitters right now. It's August. If you're still getting upset you might be following the wrong team.

They're 7-5 in their past 12 games. Yes, scoring a handful of additional runs would have probably netted them a win, maybe two since the games were all so close. Even getting Evan Longoria and Luke Scott back isn't going to magically cure what ails them. This is 2012 Rays baseball.

The Rays fall back into third place with the loss but play the Blue Jays, Twins and Mariners in the next nine games. Hopefully they're able to capitalize.

• Ben Zobrist left today's game with what was reported as back spasms. Hopefully that's nothing too serious. The Rays really can't afford to lose the guy who's been their best player this season.
• Fernando Rodney's scoreless inning gave him 21 straight, tying him with Joe Borowski for the most by a reliever in team history.