Mariners 7, Rays 1: Same old song and dance

Fart noise.

Austin Pruitt has squared off against the best pitchers in the baseball (that aren’t named Kershaw) since his call up. He has pitched remarkable well, despite coming up on the short end time and time again. Tonight against the Mariners, he drew his most favorable start so far as squared up against former Ray Erasmo Ramirez.

That’s good, right?

It was not good.

Pruitt gave up three in the first inning, and with the Rays offense of late, we all knew it was effectively over.

On the plus side, I learned that vodka and ice cream bars with a chocolate frosted donut chaser is a fine companion for an evening of existential sadness and heartbreak.

Not that Austin pitched badly. He probably left the ball up in the zone a little more than he has his last few starts, but mostly he pitched like Austin Pruitt. It’s just that Seattle hit him well. His line: Seven innings, 11 hits, 6 runs, 2 Ks, 2 walks.

In the first, the Mariner strung together a walk and four hits — including doubles from Cruz and Gamel — en route to their three first inning runs. They tacked on two more in the fourth inning thanks to a walk and three hits, including doubles from Hereidia and Zunino. They added another in the fifth thanks to three more hits, including a double by Nelson Cruz.

Counter Attack

The Rays did rally, at least early. In the second inning, they loaded the bases with one out. But Adeiny Hechavaria popped out, and Daniel Robertson flew out to right. Crack sports reporter Marc Topkin reported the following:

This is clearly #FakeNews, since there is no way in hell the Rays have gotten a RISP hit 10% of the time during their recent at bats.

Rally On!

The Rays finally got on the board in the sixth. Kevin Kiermaier, in his first game back off the DL, led off with a hustle double. He would move over to second on a Longoria groundout, and score on a Lucas Duda shallow sac fly to make it a 6-1 game.

I’m sorry, wrong clip. I should have posted Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World. You know, the one where everyone dies.

In the ninth, with Brad Boxberger on in relief, Nelson Cruz hit a majestic dinger that allegedly traveled 482 feet for the final 7-1 margin. But again, I’m not sure that’s accurate, as no one actually saw the damn thing land.

Notes:

• The Rays increased their league leading number of warning track flyouts to 420.
• Wilson Ramos was 3 for 4. Yay?
• The Rays dropped to 60-64, the furthest they’ve been below .500 all season.