Tampa Bay Rays fall to Boston Red Sox 2-5 – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays were crushed by the Boston Red Sox 2-5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Monday, September 17 in the opening game of their four match series.
Ryan Roberts provided Rays with an excellent start as he grounded into fielder’s choice to first in the fifth inning to break the deadlock. Jacoby Ellsbury put Red Sox on the board with a two run home-run to right in the sixth inning.
Mauro Gomez and Ellsbury made valuable contributions in the seventh to take Red Sox’s lead beyond Rays’ reach. Ben Zobrist reduced the deficit to 5-2 for the Rays in the ninth but his effort was also not going to be enough.
Rays’ starting pitcher pitched seven ineffective innings, allowing two hits and four runs in just six innings to take his ninth loss of the season. A poor outing meant that his ERA also ballooned to 4.27. Surely, he will be looking to post better numbers
on his next start.
Burke Badenhop, J.P. Howell, Brandon Gomes, Cesar Ramos and Dane De La Rosa combined to pitch three sharp innings but they were unfortunate to end up on the losing side.
"We're both really into that game, and we needed to win that game," Cobb said. "I honestly don't really know what the argument was about, still. We'll work things out. We'll talk about it tomorrow, or whatever, and leave it behind us."
"This has been ongoing. ... This is a seasonal misadventure," manager Joe Maddon said of his club's struggling offense. "We've been able to remain solvent because our pitching has been so good."
"I'm not unhappy," Maddon said. "That's overblown sometimes. That can actually be a good thing. It's fine right now. We discussed everything. It's all good."
Right now, it seems as if the Rays are falling out of playoff contention. Manager Joe Maddon will be extremely disgusted with the fact his team is falling apart at this vital stage of the season. Tempers are also getting a little short and the Rays will
be looking to show great fighting abilities to get back in to the playoff race.
It will be interesting to see if Maddon and company can learn from their mistakes to put things back on the right track in Game 2.
Tags: