Rays' RISP issues resurface in costly 3rd straight loss

PHILADELPHIA -- The Rays lost their previous two games in wild fashion. They were walked off in extra innings after a bizarre game-tying home run by Brandon Lowe on Monday night. Then, reliever Edwin Uceta gave up the lead, started a benches-clearing incident and got himself suspended in an ugly eighth inning on Tuesday night.

But Wednesday night brought a more familiar storyline for the Rays. They pitched well enough to beat the team with the best record in baseball, but they didn’t capitalize on a few golden opportunities with runners in scoring position en route to a 3-2 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Getting swept for the sixth time this season was frustrating enough for the Rays. Feeling like they were in every game made it sting even more.

“I feel like that's kind of how it's been for a majority of the season, at least,” shortstop Taylor Walls said. “I feel like there's a lot of ballgames that we feel like we should win … and it just seems like we're coming up short a little more than we are coming through.”

That has left the Rays at 71-75, four games below .500 for the first time since they were 35-39 entering play on June 20. More importantly, they're now seven games out of the final American League Wild Card spot as they head to Cleveland to face the Guardians, who are tied with the Yankees for the AL's best record.

Twice in the span of two innings, the Rays had a runner on third base with less than two outs against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. Twice, they didn’t score. It’s become an unfortunately regular occurrence for a club that entered the night with the Majors’ lowest average (.251) -- by far -- in those situations.

Lowe led off the third inning with a triple but advanced no further, as Junior Caminero, Josh Lowe and Dylan Carlson struck out in order. The fourth inning presented another scoring opportunity, as Jonathan Aranda laced a leadoff double to right and moved to third on Jose Siri’s swinging bunt out. With a contact play on, Ben Rortvedt hit a grounder to second and Aranda broke for the plate, only to be thrown out.

“It’s part of the game. We’ve struggled all year with it,” said bench coach Rodney Linares, who was the acting manager while Kevin Cash served his one-game suspension. “It’s unfortunate. You also have one of the best pitchers in baseball throwing out there, which doesn’t help.”

The Rays scored twice against Wheeler on Walls’ second-inning RBI single and Aranda’s sixth-inning home run. But they finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position on the night, dropping their season average with RISP to an MLB-worst .214.

That would be the lowest full-season average with RISP in club history, below the 2011 club mark of .224 -- and the fifth-lowest mark by any team since play-by-play data became available in 1969.

“We’ve definitely got to try to take control of those situations and capitalize ourselves,” Walls said. “We put too much pressure on ourselves rather than understanding the pressure is on [the pitcher], being patient, getting a pitch to hit. I mean, it's just kind of baseball. Guys go through it.”

Still, the Rays hung in the series finale thanks to their own solid pitching. Starter Shane Baz gave up a two-run homer to Nick Castellanos in the first inning, but found his rhythm in the second on his way to retiring each of the final 12 hitters he faced.

“Kind of getting them in swing mode definitely helps a lot,” said Baz, who has allowed three runs or fewer in 10 of his 11 starts this season. “I thought I did a good job, honestly, probably from the second [inning] on about that. I felt like I mixed well.”

Despite throwing only 78 pitches over 5 1/3 innings, Baz was lifted in favor of reliever Drew Rasmussen rather than facing Bryce Harper and Castellanos for a third time. Rasmussen retired Harper, thanks to a nice stop by Aranda at first, but walked Castellanos with two outs before giving up a single to Brandon Marsh that advanced Castellanos to third.

Then, Weston Wilson hit a ball right in front of the plate. The Rays initially wondered if it hit off Wilson’s foot, but he said it didn’t. It bounced and rolled to the left of the mound. Rasmussen ran after it but pulled back his arm when he realized he didn’t have a play, and the ball scooted by Caminero as Castellanos dashed home to score what proved to be the winning run.

“We were definitely competitive … [against] the best team in baseball. We're not too far off, right?” Rasmussen said. “We showed up and we competed well. To not catch a break and win one of those games, it's frustrating, for sure.”