Skip to main content

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — For the better part of 15 years now, the Tampa Bay Rays have prided themselves on playing smart baseball. They deal with baseball's ridiculous financial imbalance by focusing on pitching and defense, and not giving away runs.

And it's worked, obviously. They've made the playoffs seven times, and won two American League pennants. And more recently, they've won two straight American League East titles in a division where they get outspent by the yacht-load.

This 2022 season hasn't started the way they've wanted it to. They came into the season with several injuries on their pitching staff, and several more have been shut down since, most notably starter Drew Rasmussen and releivers J.P. Feyereisen and Andrew Kittredge. And offensively, five guys who were on the Opening Day roster, are all on the injured list as well.

It's a built-in excuse for a team that's now 37-32 on the season and a whopping 14 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East. They had a lot of close losses where they simply can't score enough runs, starting many games with as many as five hitters with batting averages under .200.

But what hurts the most so far this season is that they keep shooting themselves in the foot far too often, too, and that's something that is not part of the ''Rays' way.'' 

It happened again on Wednesday night, when they lost the rubber game of their three-game series with the New York Yankees, falling 5-4. Sure, there was plenty of blame to go around, including most notably a ''gassed'' bullpen coming off an opener day with a lot of tired arms.

But what also mattered a lot — and continues to be a major frustration — was that the Rays had two more runners thrown out on the basepaths. There's no telling how many runs that cost, but it could have been a lot. The difference between winning and losing? Yeah, sure.

Wednesday's culprits were Randy Arozarena, who's gaining a reputation for being the worst baserunner in the game for as many times as he gets thrown out, and Taylor Walls, who drifted too far from third base and got picked off with the bases loaded and the Rays' hottest hitter — Ji-Man Choi — standing in he batter's box.

That's always been one of baseball's unwritten rules, that you never make the final out of an inning at third base. It's a risk/reward thing.

But it's dumb — really dumb — when you're already standing there. You simply cannot get picked off in that situation, where the Rays had a three-run lead and could have blown the game wide open. 

Let's take a closer look at both plays, because it's worth making a big deal out of it. It's not just another out on just another night in the middle of a long, long season. It's something that definitely, absolutely, has to stop.

In the fourth inning, the Rays had already scored a run to make it 4-1, and then they loaded the bases again. Walls singled, and then Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery walked Yandy Diaz and Harold Ramirez. Up came Choi, who leads the team with 34 RBIs, is hitting .291 and has reached base in a career-high 19 games.

Walls ventured too far down the line, even though he had literally nowhere to go. A snap throw from Yankees catcher Jose Trevino to third baseman Josh Donaldson got him easily.

The next inning, Randy Arozarena singled to right field, and what was frustrating about this was that all of it was playing out right in front of him. He could see the ball get out to right fielder Giancarlo Stanton toward the corner. Arozarena jogged up the line at first, and then took off running. As he got to first, he could see Stanton field the ball, but he kept on running anyway. He was originally called safe, but the call was overturned. 

This has happened often this year with Arozarena. According to Baseball Reference, the Rays have had runners thrown out on the bases 34 times now, by far the most in the majors. (Houston is next with 28). With Arozarena, it's often over-aggression that gets him in trouble. But a lack of hustle and some very poor decision-making came into play, too. He saw everything playing out in front of him, but pushed the issue anyway. That can't happen.

He needs to be better.

St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays left fielder Randy Arozarena (56) steals second base from Chicago White Sox shortstop Danny Mendick (20) in the second inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays left fielder Randy Arozarena (56) steals second base from Chicago White Sox shortstop Danny Mendick (20) in the second inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

Walls, too. There was absolutely nothing to gain from getting caught in no-man's land there at third base. And he took the bat of out Choi's hands right when Montgomery was about to implode. One more swing could have ended this game, and Walls took that chance away. The Rays, as we know, never scored again.

It also didn't help that there was some carryover with Walls. In the sixth inning, he made a bad throwing error to first base with two outs, and it led directly to a Yankees' run. It was his ninth error of the season, among the worst in the league. The majority of those errors have been with bad throws, too, and that makes it tough, because he's on this team for his defense.

And it hasn't been there.

Even though Walls had two hits Wednesday, he's still just hitting .158 this season. And with shortstop Wander Franco due to return in a few days, it's going to be interesting to see how to Rays handle this roster situation. 

With Franco and second baseman Brandon Lowe out with injuries, Walls, Vidal Brujan and Isaac Paredes have seen a lot of playing time. Jonathan Aranda was just called up from Triple-A Durham, too, and he was hitting .310 with 11 homers and 40 RBIs. It's clear the Rays want to see him play, too, and that will likely start this weekend during a home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

There's not enough room for Walls, Brujan and Paredes, and something will have to give there. Paredes just hit four home runs in 25 hours, so he's not going anyway. Brujan might be the odd man out, but he can also play the outfield, which will come in handy with both Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot on the injured list.

In other words, this is a bad time to be making mind-numbing blunders on the basepaths, especiallys for Walls. That's an easy fix, you would think, but the Rays haven't fixed that at all. It just keeps happening.

And it needs to stop.   

  • YANKEES WIN ON LATE HOMER (Wednesday): The Tampa Bay Rays let a three-run lead slip away and lost to the New York Yankees 5-4 on Wednesday night, with base-running blunders and some Yankees long balls making the difference. The Rays have lost five games to the Yankees in the last eight days, by a total of seven runs. CLICK HERE
  • PAREDES LEADS RAYS (Tuesday): For just the seventh time in franchise history, Tampa Bay's Isaac Paredes hit three home runs on Tuesday night, leading the Rays to an important 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees. The 23-year-old Mexican now has a team-leading eight home runs on the season. CLICK HERE
  • RAYS 3-HOMER HISTORY: For the seventh time in Rays history, a player hit three home runs in a game. This time it was Isaac Paredes with three dingers. Here's the story of all seven homers, with a lot of interesting names in the history report. CLICK HERE
  • YANKEES RALLY LATE TO BEAT RAYS (Monday): The Tampa Bay Rays lost more than just a baseball game on Monday night, falling 4-2 to the New York Yankees late, but also losing two starting outfielders — Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot — to injuries in the process as their rough patch continues. They're just 2-8 in their last 10 games. CLICK HERE
  • KIERMAIER, MARGOT TO IL: The Tampa Bay outfield took a big hit Monday night, with Kevin Kiermaier and Manuel Margot going down with injuries. Kiermaier needed a cortisone shot for his hip, and is hoping to be back soon. The news on Margot's knee injury is not good, though, and he is expected to miss ''substantial'' time. CLICK HERE
  • RAYS 2022 SCHEDULE: Here is the Rays' complete schedule for 2022, with results and stats thus far, and gametimes and locations for the rest of the year. CLICK HERE