Rays' Struggles Continue in Lackluster 5-0 Loss to Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers
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TAMPA, Fla. — July was a rough month for the Tampa Bay Rays. The only won seven games, the worst in baseball. The calendar flipped to August on Friday, but nothing has changed for the struggling Rays.
At home for a quick three-game homestand with the defending world-champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Rays never had a chance Friday night at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Starter Shane Baz gave up two first-inning runs — and five overall — and the Tampa Bay offense never threatened in a lackluster 5-0 loss. It was the ninth time the Rays have been shut out this season.
They had no answer for 37-year-old left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who won his 217th career game, tied for second-bast among active pitchers behind Justin Verlander (263). He pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just five harmless singles. It was the Rays' seventh-straight loss against a lefty.
"He's had about as much pitchability as anybody in baseball the past two decades, and he had it going on today,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Kershaw. "He threw the cutter where he wanted, the fastball and split, and certainly the curveball.
"He's a little different version of himself now, but he can still change eye levels, still change speeds. He kept us off-balance, and I felt like we got a little aggressive expanding out of the zone. And when we got guys on, he made some of his best pitches.''
Shane Baz, who took the loss to go to 8-8 and hasn't won a game since June 26, got touched up early. In the first, he issued a one-out walk to Shohei Ohtani, and then gave up back-to-back doubles to Will Smith and Freddie Freeman, with the latter driving in two runs.
Los Angeles got two more in the fourth on an RBI single from Alex Freeland and a sacrifice fly from Mookie Betts. They tacked on another in the fifth when Freeman hit a long home run to right to make it 5-0. Baz threw 98 pitches in five innings of work, allowing all five runs on eight hits and two walks. He did have eight strikeouts.
Rays pitchers had 15 strikeouts on the night, their second-highest total of the year. Ian Seymour had four in two innings of work, allowing just one hit. Garrett Cleavinger had a strikeout in a perfect eighth, and Mason Montgomery struck out two in the ninth.
The only real Rays rally was in the second inning. Christopher Morel and Jonny DeLuca opened the inning with singles, but Josh Lowe flied out, Jake Mangum grounded out to first, with the runners advancing, but new catcher Nick Fortes struck out to end the threat.
The Rays got a runner to third only once, and that was when second baseman Brandon Lowe reached on an error by Betts in the sixth inning, went to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a two-out infield single from Morel. But DeLucas flied out to center. Justin Wrobleski got the save for pitching three scoreless innings, allowing only a two-out single to DeLuca in the ninth.
With the loss, the Rays are now 54-57, three games below .500 for the first time since May 23. That's on off their lowest mark of the year. The two teams meet again Saturday in a great pitching matchup getween Drew Rasmussen and former Ray Blake Snell.
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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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