Uncharacteristic Miscues Cost Rays in 6-3 Loss to A's in Series Finale
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Three-run homers in all varieties are tough to overcome, and the Tampa Bay Rays learned that the hard way again on Thursday, getting beat by a "Little League'' home run in the series finale with the Oakland Athletics at Tropicana Field.
The A's won 6-3 to take three of four games in the series, and the game turned in the second inning. Oakland's Elvis Andrus and Kevin Smith got on with a pair of seeing-eye singles off of Tampa Bay starter Josh Fleming and then, with two outs, center fielder Christian Pache singled to left center.
Tampa Bay left fielder Randy Arozarena cut in front of center fielder Kevin Kiermaier but misplayed the ball, bouncing off his glove and past Kiermaier, rolling almost all the way to the wall. Kiermaier dropped the ball while trying to pick it up, and Pache just kept on running, with all three players scoring.
Arozarena was charged with an error, and two of the three runs were unearned.
"We’ve got two guys that are elite at covering ground and they just got tangled up,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Randy, the ball hit off his foot or his leg or something and kind of ricocheted. It was kind of a messed-up play from the beginning.’’
Fleming, who pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings last Saturday in picking up the win against Baltimore, wasn't as sharp, but a lot of Oakland ground balls simply found holes too. He pitched 3 1/3 innings ahead, but this time gave up five runs, three of them earned.
He missed the Arozarena miscue because he was running in to back up home plate. He didn't see what what going on until the ball was rolling all the way to the wall.
“Overall I felt really good, but that’s the frustrating thing about baseball. You can feel really great about what you’re doing, but the results don’t go your way,'' Fleming said. "That’s baseball, it happens. It’s unfortunate it had to happen there. It’s just one of those things.
“The hits? That just goes with being a contact pitcher. It seemed like every ball they hit on the ground found a hole.''
The Rays answered right back, but then a potential big inning disappeared in an instant with a base-running blunder.
Arozarena doubled to right to lead off the inning and then Brandon Lowe followed with a single. Manuel Margot singled in Arozarena, but on a Mike Zunino flyout to right, both runners tagged up but Margot got thrown out and second. Kevin Kiermaier then grounded out, and a potential crooked number never happened. The Rays trailed 3-1.
Oakland added single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, the last one coming off of Phoenix Sanders, who was the latest Tampa Bay pitcher to make his major-league debut. The 26-year-old Gainesville, Fla., native who pitched collegiately at South Florida, threw three innings and allowed just that one run in the sixth. He is the 20th pitcher the Rays have used in the first week of the season in dealing with a slew of injuries
The Rays got two runs back in the seventh when Harold Ramirez doubled and then Lowe hit a home run to right, his third on the season. But they couldn't any further damage.
The Rays finished their opening home stand with a 4-3 record after sweeping the Orioles. Now they head to Chicago for a week, taking on the White Sox Friday through Sunday, and then the Cubs on Monday through Wednesday.
Losing three of four to Oakland, a team in rebuild mode, was disappointing.
“They played a really good series against us,'' Cash said. "They’ve done a nice job of mixing in veteran players with some good young guys and they beat us three out of four.''
Here's what Kevin Cash said after the game
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- RAYS NOTEBOOK: One of the reasons why Tommy Romero is a top pitching prospect in the Rays organization is because he usually has great control. That wasn't the case in his major-league debut Tuesday night, but he said he learned a lot and will look forward to his next mound visit. 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.