Saturday, June 22. Game 77: Send the Rays to Montreal now.

Rays 2, A's 4

Record:  44-33

Attendance:  26,623


Manager Kevin Cash may not be at fault for the mess Diego Castillo has caused.  Yes, he continued yesterday to put Castillo into a tie game in the seventh.  He'd given up a walk-off homer to Matt Chapman two days earlier.  And this time he walked the first batter he faced (always bad and a direct violation of the pitcher's creed:  throw strikes), and two batters later Matt Chapman came up again.  This time Castillo held him to a run-producing, tie-breaking double.  With two on and no outs, Matt Olson was given an intentional pass loading the bases. One batter after that, Castillo hit Ramon Laureano between the shoulder blades forcing in the fourth run.  And that was it, A's win 4-2.

But what share of the blame goes to Manager Cash?  He was quoted in the Tampa Bay Times that after Ji-Man Choi's game-tying homer in the top of the seventh, Castillo's work was "a little bit of a momentum bust." But here's where I begin to forgive Cash:  "We get our guy in there--and Diego is our guy--he comes in with a four-pitch walk."  And of course it went down the drain after that.  But Cash is still thinking Castillo is his guy.  Mysteriously, by process of elimination, he probably is.

If you are looking for a villain here, how about the front office which hasn't pulled off a trade to help the bullpen?  Or to help the lineup with a big bat, like Edwin Encarnacion's--he was obviously available because the Yankees managed a trade for him.  Or a traditional starter.  Or another bulk man.

Maybe Chaim Bloom, the Rays Sr. VP in charge of baseball operations, has been too busy interviewing for jobs with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets to do his job in Tampa Bay.  The more he thinks about his cv and career advancement, the less he is thinking about the Rays. That just makes sense. Or maybe Bloom and all the rest of the Rays front office people from chief owner Stu Sternberg down have become too obsessed with their Montreal machinations to pay attention to what's happening on the field these days. Maybe it would be best to send this bunch of slumping losers to Montreal right now.

But do us a favor Mr. Cash, go with one of your other bullpen guys in a high leverage situation today.