Rays Fall To Royals 3-1 Tuesday Despite Several Scoring Threats
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TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay third baseman Junior Caminero hit a towering 410-foot home run to center field in the fourth inning on Tuesday night. It was quite the highlight.
But it was also the only one.
The Rays had several scoring opportunities against the Kansas City Royals, getting a runner in scoring position in three different innings. But they couldn't get any of them in, and lost 3-1 in the first game of a three-game homestand at Steinbrenner Field.
The loss snapped the Rays' season-high five-game winning streak, and dropped them to 14-15 on the season.
"They did a good job of mixing pitches. I felt like they attacked us really well and got early strikes,'' Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said of Kansas City starter Michael Lorenzen and three relievers. ''We could never get anything going and the momentum was just kind of in their favor.
"Their pitching staff did a good job. We've just got to be better in those (scoring) opportunities. We've got to find a way to come up and get that big hit. We did that a lot on the road trip, we did not do it tonight. But I trust that the guys will bounce back and get big hits with guys on base moving forward.''
Taj Bradley was the hard-luck loser for the Rays. He pitched seven innings and allowed only two runs, one in the first and one in the second. Most nights, that would have been enough for a win, but the Rays offense just couldn't get it done.
They had a good chance in the first inning, when Yandy Diaz had a one-out single and Caminero had a double to right. But Jonathan Aranda, who's hitting .294 on the season and has had several clutch hits, grounded out to first to end the threat, leaving two men on.
Trailing 2-1 in the fifth inning, Diaz had a two-out double, but Brandon Lowe struck out. It was still 2-1 in the eighth when Lowe and Caminero had one-out singles, but Aranda struck out in a seven-pitch at-bat and Christopher Morel, who was 0-for-4 on the night, grounded out to shortstop.
Kansas City added an insurance run in the ninth. In the bottom of the inning off closer Carlos Estevez, Jose Caballero beat out an infield single with one out. Danny Jansen then hit a long fly ball to left that looked like a game-tying homer for a while, but it was caught on the warning track.
Chandler Simpson, who went 0-for-5 to end his eight-game hitting streak, grounded out to second base to end the game. It was Estevez's eighth save of the season, and a rare road win for Kansas City, who's just 4-10 away from home.
Bradley felt good about his performance despite the two early runs. He settled in from there, throwing 101 pitches and keeping the Rays in the game.
"I just tried to keep it simple, and after those two runs, that's all I did,'' Bradley said. "I just trusted my stuff and threw in the zone and expanded when I had to. I'm going deep in games, going six, seven innings. I'm getting guys out with weak contact, and I like that too.
"That's the way baseball is played (with the offense having an off night). Weak contact, I'm happy with it. If it sneaks through a hole, I can't control that.''
The two teams meet again on Wednesday night. Drew Rasmussen (1-1, 2.10 ERA) will pitch for the Rays and Noah Cameron will make his major-league debut for the Royals.
Kansas City is now 6-1 in its last seven games and is back to .500 for the first time since April 13. They've had a six-game losing streak and a six-game winning streak since then. Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. had a single, extending his hitting streak to a major-league best 20 games.
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Tom Brew is the publisher of ''Tampa Bay Rays on SI'' and has been with the Sports Illustrated platform since 2019. He has worked at some of America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He owns eight sites on the "On SI'' network and has written four books.
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