Rays wrap grueling road trip: 'We were in every one of those games'

CLEVELAND -- It’s finally over.

After 10 days, 2,708 total pitches, four wins and two suspensions, the Rays’ grueling road trip against three straight division leaders is complete.

And it came with countless learning experiences for a team that has one of the youngest rosters in the Majors.

Sunday afternoon’s series finale against Cleveland was no different, as Tampa Bay mustered only four hits and got just one runner past second base in its 2-0 loss at Progressive Field.

The loss closed out a 4-6 road trip that was highlighted by a series win over the Orioles last week and a series split against the Guardians this weekend, with a sweep at the hands of the Phillies in between. It marked the first time in MLB history that a team faced off against three straight division leaders on a road trip in September.

“We’ve been in a situation for a month where we’ve needed to win every series and win some of these tight games,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We haven’t, but I feel like the intensity has been there.”

One of the young players whom the Rays will rely on in the future is Taj Bradley, who allowed two runs over 4 1/3 innings in his start against the Guardians on Sunday.

After looking like one of the best pitchers in baseball in the middle of the summer (he had an 0.82 ERA across a nine-start span from June 8 to July 25), Bradley came back down to earth with a 10.41 ERA in five August starts.

“The month of August was a learning experience with bumps and bruises,” Bradley said. “Everyone has them. It’s all about how you bounce back, and I think I took positives from it.”

Sunday’s start against the Guardians was another learning experience, as Bradley limited Cleveland’s potent lineup to just one run on three hits in the first four innings before getting chased in the fifth after giving up knocks to Angel Martínez and José Ramírez.

“I don’t think he had the best feel for his stuff,” Cash said. “But it’s a good sign when you don’t have your best stuff and you’re able to compete and limit a team like that.”

After Mason Montgomery relieved Bradley, Martínez scored from third when Ramírez was caught stealing at second.

“We wanted to take the out there,” catcher Ben Rortvedt said.

Bradley relied heavily on his splitter (34 percent usage) and fastball (30 percent), which is around his season usage (27 and 41 percent, respectively). He had six strikeouts and generated eight whiffs with his splitter.

“His fastball command got better as the game went on,” Rortvedt said. “He had some misfires, but those could set us up for things later in the game. I thought he did a great job.”

The Rays had a chance to break through against Guardians starter Ben Lively in the first inning when they had runners on first and third with two out, but Lively got Dylan Carlson to ground into a forceout.

Lively stymied Tampa Bay’s lineup in the middle innings before Yandy Díaz and Brandon Lowe opened the sixth with back-to-back singles, which led to Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt going to his bullpen.

Cade Smith shut down the Rays’ threat by getting Junior Caminero and Carlson to strike out and Jonathan Aranda to pop out. Tampa Bay was unable to get a baserunner against Cleveland’s bullpen.

“[Smith] has a good mix of pitches, and [he and the bullpen] were able to not only locate their pitches but also take away some of the momentum, which was huge,” Carlson said. “We weren’t able to capitalize. They made some pitches and we took our best at-bats, it just didn’t pay off.”

Not only are the Rays (73-77) almost guaranteed to miss out on the postseason for the first time since 2018, but they’re also in danger of recording their first losing season since ‘17. After Sunday’s loss, they’ll need to go 9-3 over their last 12 games to secure a winning record.

“It really feels like we were in every one of those games [on the road trip],” Cash said. “I don’t know if that’s great to say since our goal is to win games, but we’re doing some good things for some of these players who are getting their first opportunity or getting acclimated with our club.

“That’s something we can feel good about going into the offseason.”