Joe Boyle Shelled Again in Rays' Ugly 7-4 Loss to Cardinals

TAMPA, Fla. — First it was Taj Bradley, and then it was Shane Baz. Now it's promising young right-hander Joe Boyle who can't get anyone out.

Tampa Bay Rays' starting pitching, a strength of this franchise for nearly two decades, is suddenly a mess.

Boyle had another bad outing — a rapid departure from the eye-popping start to his career — giving up six runs in four innings in a 7-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. He's given up four runs or more in four of his last five starts, and hasn't made it past the fourth inning in any of them.

He's 0-3 since July 29 when he joined the rotation, and in those four bad starts, he's given up 22 runs — 19 earned — in just 12 2/3 innings of work

It all fell apart quickly for Boyle on Thursday night at Steinbrenner Field. The Cardinals scored five times in the second inning and cruised to an easy win. With the loss, the Rays are now 61-67, a season-low six games under .500. It's the first time since June 22, 2018 that they've been been six below (34-40).

Seven-plus long years ago.

The Rays, who were 11 games over .500 on June 28, have gone 14-31 since then, by far the worst record in the major leagues. And the 2025 season is fading fast after an ugly loss that featured bad base running, defensive miscues and an overall lack of hustle.

“That game felt like, for all the stuff we didn’t do well, it did feel like it was a pretty winnable game, or there were some winnable game moments in there,” Cash said. “And we just weren’t able to capitalize.”

The Rays did score first — their first lead since Saturday — when Chandler Simpson singled, went to second a wild pitch, got to third on a fly ball and scored on a Brandon Lowe groundout. Down 5-1 in the third, they scored two more when Simpson opened the inning with a ground rule double and a Yandy Diaz home run, his 21st of the year.

But Boyle gave up another run in the fourth, and when he loaded the bases with none out in the fifth — allowing 13 base-runners in 25 at-bats —,Cash yanked him. Mason Montgomery came in and got a double play and groundout to get out of the jam, but the Rays didn't get any closer.

The Rays made two errors on the night and also had a base-running blunder when Tristan Gray singled with two outs in the sixth inning. Rookie center fielder Everson Pereira jogged toward home and catcher Nick Fortes tried to advance to third. He was thrown out before Pereira reached home plate, so the run didn't count.

It was the Rays' fourth straight loss and they are now seven games out of the final wild-card spot held by the Seattle Mariners. Worse off, there are four other teams — Kansas City, Cleveland, Texas and the Los Angeles Angels — between them. That's alarming.

And what's even more disheartening is that the Rays are just 1.5 games out of last place. The Baltimore Orioles — who were 11.5 games behind the Rays on that June 28 day mentioned above — are now closing in on catching the Rays and sending them into last place.

To compound matters, Diaz left the game with a hamstring injury and is day-to-day. The two teams play again Friday night, will take Saturday off and then wrap up the series on Sunday afternoon. There is no game Saturday because it conflicts with a Buccanners preseason game at Raymond James Stadium across the street.