Rays Bats Stay Quiet Again in 5-1 Loss to Blue Jays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Ryan Thompson has been very good out of the Tampa Bay bullpen all season, but Saturday was not his night. He got roughed up in the eighth inning, allowing four runs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Rays 5-1 at Tropicana Field.
In 14 appearances prior to Saturday, Thompson had been touched for a run only once. He's been that steady. But the Blue Jays ripped him apart, blowing open a 1-1 pitcher's duel with four hits, including home runs by Teoscar Hernandez and Danny Jansen.
"It was super-frustrating,'' Thompson said. "I've already rewatched every pitch I threw, and I stand by the pitches I threw and I stand by the location I threw them. I just got beat today, got my ass kicked today.
"The name of the game today is that it just wasn't my day, and it was theirs. They were better than me today.''
With the win, Toronto (18-16) snapped a five-game losing streak and evened the series with the Rays (20-14), with the rubber game on Sunday afternoon. Jeffrey Springs (1-1, 2.12 ERA) will get his second start for Tampa Bay on Sunday, facing Toronto's Alek Manoah (4-0, 1.75 ERA).
The Rays were held to one run or fewer for just the fourth time this season, but it's the third time it's happened in the past week. It happened just once in the first 28 games, but now the drought has occurred three times in the past six games.
Tampa Bay had just five hits and never scored again after Yandy Diaz led off the bottom of the first with a home run.
"We didn't do too much offensively, and we need to bounce back (Sunday),'' Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. "We're being pitched tough, and we're not making the most of our opportunities when guys get on base, coming up with those big hits. But I'm still very confident we will.''
Ryan Yarbrough started for the Rays and got in trouble early, loading the bases in the first with just one out. He got out of the mess with just one run scoring, on a sacrifice fly by second baseman Santiago Espinal.
He got into more trouble in the fourth with a pair or two-out walks to the Nos. 8-9 hitters in the Jays' order, catcher Danny Jansen and center fielder Raimel Tapia, and he was replaced by J.P. Feyereisen, who struck out third baseman Matt Chapman to end the threat.
"It was frustrating, just fighting myself, really,'' said Yarbrough, who threw 80 pitches to get his 11 outs. "I couldn't consistently put things where I wanted. I got those two outs in the fourth, but then it kind of got away from me a little bit.
"I felt like Jansen put in a good at-bat and had some good takes, and then with Tapia, I kind of lost the zone there for a couple. That's the frustrating part, because you have two outs. Especially with Tapia being left-handed, you want to get that out and start the fifth inning. I felt good in the bullpen, but it just didn't translate. It was just a matter of being in the zone.''
The Tampa Bay bullpen did its thing, with Feyereisen, Colin Poche and Jason Adam pitching a combined 3 1/3 scoreless innings and allowing just one hit. But Toronto's pitching was just as good, and the Rays never really threatened. They got two on with one out in the sixth, but couldn't get anything going, and couldn't do anything with a leadoff walk in the eighth, either.
The top of the eighth was a disaster for Thompson. Hernandez led off the inning with a long 414-foot homer to straightaway center to give Toronto a 2-1 lead. Espinal then singled and scored on another single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to make it 3-1. Jansen hit the next pitch into the left-field seats to blow the game open at 5-1.
Randy Arozarena led off the ninth with a single for the Rays, but got stranded there.
The kind of play that makes you sweat before anyone even gets to the ball pic.twitter.com/tjOjD25xGa
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 15, 2022
One bat that's gone quiet lately belongs to shortstop Wander Franco, who's 0-for-15 in his last four starts and was 0-for-4 on Saturday. The cold snap seems odd, because he had a five-game hitting streak prior to that, where he went 9-for-22.
Cash isn't worried about his star.
"He's being pitched up, and maybe he's expanded the zone a few times, but saying that, he's also squared some balls up. He smoked the ball to center the first at-bat. He's totally fine and he'll get going.''
Related stories on Rays baseball
- JUST FOR STARTERS: Tampa Bay left-hander Ryan Yarbrough made his third start of the season on Saturday night against Toronto. He wasn't sharp but got out of trouble when he had to. Here's our ''Just For Starters'' story breaking down his night. CLICK HERE
- RAYS WIN OPENER (Friday): Drew Rasmussen was terrific for the fourth straight start and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied with three runs in the eighth inning to beat the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, grabbing their 20th win of the year. CLICK HERE
- RAYS SCHEDULE: Here is the complete 2022 Tampa Bay Rays schedule, with results so far plus dates, gametimes and locations for the rest of the games on their schedule. CLICK HERE
Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.