Tampa Bay Rays Pitchers’ woe receive attention as club moves on from recent loss in Game 3 against the Texas Rangers - ALDS
The Tampa Bay Rays were looking for a win at their home stadium of the Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg on Monday, October 3, against the Texas Rangers. Desperately trying to etch a winner, the club fought back in the later innings, only to lose the game
4 – 3.
Ray’s major setback came in the seventh inning as David Price went up to the mound with six scoreless innings in the tank.
With Adrian Beltre on the base for the Rangers, Mike Napoli went on to the plate to face Price. He wasted no time in outing as he smashed a two-run homer on a two-strike pitch. The hard hitter was able to put the visitors ahead as the Rays went down to a
2 – 1 score line.
"David was still doing a nice job of working through the whole event," said manager Joe Maddon, adding that "this is the year of the Napoli, man."
Price walked off with the game loss in 6.2 innings of pitching. He permitted three runs off seven hits.
"I felt good, pretty much the entire game," Price said. "That's what it takes, is one pitch in the postseason, and that's pretty much what cost me today. ... Just haven't gotten it done."
J. P. Howell came in for Brandon Gomes later on, in the inning as the relief pitcher managed to put the Rangers in a bases loaded situation. Coming in to clean up the mess, Howell missed his chance as the infield shift strategy failed to stop on-plate hitter,
Josh Hamilton, from smashing the ball to the right for a two-run RBI single. The hurler was asked how he felt when the hit was in play.
"Disgust, a lot of anger inside," said Howell. "You have to flush that and roll on, man. That's my job for tomorrow. That's my goal. Swallow this and move on."
With the Rays on the back foot, it will be interesting to see if they can beat the Rangers to bring the series to Game 5.
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