Rays 4, Red Sox 9
Record: 57-46
Attendance: 10,966
The Rays' summer swoon continues with just an occasional victory now and then to show for a season that started with a ton of promise but is ending with daily displays of ineptitude. It is now the red hot Red Sox turn to bash the locals, and they did so on Monday night with the flare and firepower of a battleship taking down a fishing boat. It wasn't pretty.
The Rays started bulk man Jalen Beeks, who sailed through the first two innings, but fell apart in the third giving up three homers. He got two outs in the fourth but was pulled after giving up another run, making it 8-0. The Rays managed to score four runs late in the game (it was long over by then), but it is worth pointing out that Travis d'Arnaud (2 for 4 with an RBI) and Austin Meadows (1 for 3 with an RBI) continued their hot hitting. Both of them walked and scored a run too.
But the occasional bright spot cannot get this team to respectability. The bullpen is overtaxed, their best opener Ryne Stanek is on the IL, Snell and Morton can't carry the burden, their defense is not rock solid, their base running, in Manager Kevin Cash's word is "atrocious," and clutch hitting is nearly non-existent. Oh, yeah, their center fielder is on the IL again with a jammed thumb from sliding into first, which he knows better than to do, but which he can't keep himself from doing. He says he blacked out on the way to first. You can't make this stuff up.
It's so bad that instead of buying talent at the trade deadline to make a post season run, the Rays may well sell off their assets for next year. Maybe Stu Sternberg and his sabermetric subordinates are laying the groundwork for a real run at the pennant when the team moves to Montreal.
Maybe they're just toying with us. I wouldn't be surprised if they were. What else can explain their unwillingness to shore up the current team with bullpen relief, a closer, and a quality right hand bat?
Tonight, Chris Sale against Yonny Chirinos
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