Rays 0, Tigers 2
Record 71-52
Attendance: 13,717
The Rays will drive their fans, even grown men, to pull out their hair and scream in agonized disbelief. To recap, they still need to win 23 more games of the now 39 left to play in order to win 94 and pretty much guarantee a post season opportunity. But they've now lost two in a row to lower tier teams, first San Diego and now Detroit. Detroit, in fact, is the worst team in baseball at 36-82.
Making matters worse, the Rays had their best pitcher Charlie Morton on the mound, and he was lights out, pitching seven excellent innings: three hits, one unearned run, and 10 Ks. But he lost the game, 2-0, anyway, lowering his record to 13-5 and making his Cy Young bid a little less likely.
To call this fiasco a missed opportunity is to understate the matter by more percentage points than the Rays' collective batting averages, which have once again begun to tumble. And it couldn't have come at a worse time, right in the thick of the pennant race. They haven't scored a single run in 17 straight innings.
If that sounds familiar, it was on August 5, not even two weeks ago, that the lowly Blue Jays beat the Rays by the same score, 2-0, once again at Tropicana Field. And the string of scoreless innings in that three-game set extended to 24 of 28 innings. The losing pitcher then, as now, was Charlie Morton, who should be 15-3 instead of 13-5.
What accounts for the prolonged hitting problems the home team has on its home field? Maybe it's the truth of Tommy Pham's pre-season radio comment that Tampa Bay has no fan base at all. Maybe the lack of attendance works on the minds of this edition of the Rays more than it did on earlier teams. Maybe it's the looming menace of moving to Montreal with all the hardships that will impose on them. Maybe they've lost faith with the Rays front office, from owner Stu Sternberg down.
Whatever the reason, the Rays home record has now fallen to 31-29, which stands in stark contrast to their away record which is the best in baseball, 40-23. But, the Rays have 21 more home games to play, and, to repeat, if they are going to win 94, they'll need to win 23 of their remaining 39 games.
It isn't idle negativism to predict that home-game batting slumps, which have plagued the Rays all season, will bury this team over the last six weeks of the season.
Something else to second guess: Manager Kevin Cash used Jose De Leon in the 7-2 loss to San Diego on Wednesday and on Friday he used Peter Fairbanks against Detroit. De Leon made his first major league appearance after Tommy John surgery and Fairbanks, who is returning from his second Tommy John surgery, also made his first appearance for the Rays, having been acquired in July from Texas and being assigned to Durham. By most accounts, both have bright futures, but to put them in the crucible of a hot pennant race is to ask them both for high performance while they try their "new" arms out during on-the-job-training. De Leon pitched two innings and gave up one run on a hit and two walks. Fairbanks pitched one inning and gave up two hits and a run. Does it do any good for the pitchers or the team to put reconstructed arms on display during a critical stretch of games?
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