Rays reach new low in July: 'We're going through it'

HOUSTON -- This month can’t end soon enough for the Rays.

The Rays’ woeful July reached a new low with an ugly 17-4 defeat on Saturday night at Minute Maid Park. It was Tampa Bay’s second-most lopsided loss of the season, behind only the largest loss in franchise history on May 23, and it dropped the Rays to 6-16 (.273 winning percentage) in July.

“That's the way baseball goes. Sometimes you're going to be out there and you're playing great, and other times you're going to kind of go through it,” second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “We're going through it right now.”

No matter what happens the next two days, this is already the club’s worst month since the team rebranded itself as the Rays in 2008, surpassing the previous low mark set in July 2015 (9-16, .360) and matched in July ‘16.

If they lose Sunday afternoon in Houston and Monday night in the Bronx, this would become the second-worst month in franchise history, better than only the Devil Rays’ 5-21 record (.192) in June 2003.

That outcome would also give the Rays the dubious distinction of having the worst July winning percentage (.250) in Major League history for a team that entered the month with the Majors’ best record, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, surpassing the 1893 Brooklyn Bridegrooms (7-20, .259). If they win one or both of the next two, they would still have the worst such mark in the Modern Era.

The Rays have only had one winning streak this month, as they won their final game before the All-Star break then swept a doubleheader in Kansas City to begin the second half. The positive momentum that sustained the Rays throughout their incredible start to the season has vanished.

“It has been a challenge. I think that's very fair,” manager Kevin Cash said. “If I could put my finger on it, I would. I don't know what the cause of it is. [I’d] go back to the offense just continuing to be quiet.”

That was part of the problem Saturday night. Astros starter Hunter Brown shut out the Rays for six innings before they finally got on the board with a trio of late-inning homers by Isaac Paredes (who hit two to tie Jose Siri’s team-leading 20 on the year) and Wander Franco (his 12th).

The game got off to an inauspicious start for the Rays. Franco hit a one-out single, stole second base and advanced another 90 feet on an error. Lowe hit a pop-up that third baseman Alex Bregman caught down the left-field line, and Franco was thrown out at the plate after trying to tag up and score, although Franco insisted he was safe.

“One hundred percent support that,” Cash said. “It took a perfect throw, a perfect tag and he looked safe to me.”

Meanwhile, the Rays couldn’t slow down the Astros' lineup. Rookie starter Taj Bradley gave up five runs and didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, continuing a tough stretch in which he has put together a 9.12 ERA in 25 2/3 innings over his last six outings following an excellent six-inning performance against the Orioles on June 21. The Rays have lost each of his last six starts.

After throwing 50 pitches in his first two innings, Bradley bounced back with a 10-pitch third before the Astros chased him in the fourth. After a leadoff walk and a hard single by Chas McCormick, Bradley loaded the bases by walking No. 9-hitting Jake Meyers with one out. Bradley was pulled after throwing 86 pitches, and reliever Kevin Kelly allowed all three inherited runners to score on Jeremy Peña’s two-out double.

“I threw a lot of strikes. They were just able to spoil a lot of good pitches,” Bradley said. “I tried to go outside of the zone with two strikes on them, and they were taking them. The scouting report said they were aggressive, but they also had good takes and quality takes.”

The game spiraled away from the Rays after that, as reliever Calvin Faucher gave up six runs in two innings and backup catcher René Pinto permitted five runs on three homers in his first career pitching appearance. The plan was for Pinto to finish the game, but the inning got so out of hand that the Rays asked veteran lefty Jake Diekman to handle the eighth.

The good news? It’s almost August.

“I think we know we've had a few rough times out here, but I think we just have to keep our head up, keep on pushing forward,” Franco said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “As long as we keep the right attitude, we can still go far with his team.”