Rays 0, White Sox 3: So You Had A Bad Day

The day for the Tampa Bay Rays started with placing pitcher Tyler Glasnow on the 10-day IL with a right elbow sprain and recalling Mike Brosseau to fill the newly vacated roster spot.

Shane McClanahan (2-1, 4.54 ERA) gets the start for the Rays against Dallas Keuchel (5-1, 4.14 ERA) and the Chicago White Sox. The Rays came into the game on a four-game winning streak. Let’s see where tonight takes us.

The Rays offense got off to a slow start to begin the game. Manuel Margot led off with a groundout to shortstop and was followed by a Randy Arozarena strikeout. After two quick outs, Austin Meadows connected for a double to give the Rays a runner in scoring position. A Yandy Diaz strikeout left Meadows stranded at second base.

The White Sox jumped out to a quicker start with Tim Anderson taking a full-count fastball and hitting it off McClanahan to short. McClanahan would recover from being involved in the single by getting Adam Engel and Yasmani Grandal to groundout. The first inning ended 0-0 after Jose Abreau.

Keuchel retired the side in order at the top of the second inning on 14 pitches. Andrew Vaughn connected on a first-pitch fastball following a Yermin Mercedes strikeout. He would later advance to second on a Brian Goodwin line drive to left field but a Danny Mendick flyout closed out the second inning still tied 0-0.

The Rays were struggling against Keuchel and home plate umpire James Hoye’s interpretation of the strike zone in this game. In the top of the third Margot drew a two-out walk and was followed by Randy Arozarena hoping to see a continuation of his power hitting recently. Arozarena’s at-bat ended with a strikeout on a very questionable called third strike. Randy briefly shared his thoughts with the home plate umpire before returning to the dugout.

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In the bottom of the third inning the White Sox started off with a lucky break. Tim Anderson took a ball virtually off the ground and successfully converted it into a single. Anderson successfully stole second base for his 13th steal of the season to give Chicago a runner in scoring position with one out. McClanahan would close the inning out by getting both Grandal and Abreau to groundout to close the inning. The White Sox have no runs scored so far in the game but they are consistently putting the ball in play which should eventually produce some positive outcomes for them. Also, while there are some bad calls going for both teams, apparently a slider over the middle of the plate is also ruled a ball in tonight’s game.

The Rays tried to get some offense going in the fourth inning. Yandy Diaz and Mike Brosseau had back-to-back singles following a Meadows flyout. Consistent with the first few innings, the baserunners would not result in runs as Francisco Mejia and Joey Wendle both would lineout.

The Rays defense was a source for inspiration and stress in the bottom of the fourth inning. Yermin Mercedes was leading off and hit a groundout to Yandy Diaz who got it over to McClanahan just in time for the first out. Then things started going downhill for the Rays. Andrew Vaughn was walked on five pitches followed by a Leury Garcia single to give the White Sox runners on first and second. two batters later Danny Mendick hit a two-out single to Arozarena in left field. Arozarena’s throw would be ruled an error after getting past Mejia with McClanahan not deep enough to back up the play allowing two runs to score. White Sox lead 2-0 after four.

Adam Engel led off for the White Sox in the bottom of the fifth and launched a first-pitch fastball for a home run (EV 107.1mph, LA 34 degrees). McClanahan would get out of the inning with a groundout to Grandal, strikeout to Abreau, and getting Mercedes to flyout. McClanahan finished with 5.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.

In the eighth inning Aaron Bummer came replaced Keuchel for the White Sox. Keuchel only allowed four hits and one walk over 7.0 innings. The Rays made contact and put a lot of balls in play, they just unfortunately found a lot of White Sox gloves. Bummer walked his first batter faced, Taylor Walls, then retired the next three Rays hitters he faced.

The Rays at least stopped the defensive bleeding through a combination of Jeffrey Springs, Andrew Kittredge, and Matt Wisler for an inning each from the sixth through the eighth keeping the team a short rally away from a potential ninth inning comeback.

Liam Hendriks was on for the White Sox in the ninth but the Rays did not go down quietly. Yandy Diaz started the woulda, shoulda, coulda rally by getting a single of a soft hit to third. Ji-Man Choi pinch-hitting for Mike Brosseau followed up with a single to right and suddenly, the Rays have Brandon Lowe pinch-hitting as the tying run coming to the plate. Unfortunately, this is where the rally would stop progressing as Lowe and Wendle would both strikeout to end the game with a 3-0 loss.

The loss is the first time the Rays have been shutout since May 12 against the Yankees and first loss of more than two runs since May 8 against Oakland.

These two teams meet tomorrow to decide the series with first pitch scheduled for 2:10pm ET.