Rays' shutout loss magnifies need for Deadline bats

BALTIMORE -- Few teams wheel and deal like the Rays, which always makes them a team to watch in the days leading up to the Trade Deadline.

Five days out, the Rays are injury-ravaged but clear buyers this year -- and they need a bat. Their second-half-opening road trip, which Tampa Bay concluded with a punchless 3-0 loss to the Orioles on Thursday afternoon at Camden Yards, further drove that notion home.

“We're just not getting it done offensively,” manager Kevin Cash said. “The guys know that. They’re fully aware. There's a lot of pride in that room to do better. It's just not coming easy right now. We've kind of hit a little bit of a rut.”

The Rays went 2-5 on this steamy trip through Kansas City and Baltimore, over which they lost more key players to the injured list and averaged 3.14 runs per game. They were held to 10 total runs en route to dropping three of four in Baltimore, managing only four singles Thursday behind six excellent innings of one-run ball from hard-luck loser Ryan Yarbrough.

In the week since the All-Star break, Tampa Bay has fallen out of the top American League Wild Card spot and watched its grip on the final spot shrink significantly. The club left Oriole Park leading that jumbled race by two games over Cleveland, 2.5 games over Chicago and three games over Baltimore -- and feeling deeply dissatisfied.

“I don't think that was our best showing offensively,” said second baseman Brandon Lowe. “It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to watch our pitchers go out there and perform so well. For Ryan to go as long as he did with one run, and we couldn't get him any kind of support, that really bothers me and it bothers everybody on our team.”

Lowe’s recent return from a back issue that sidelined him since mid-May provided a temporary jolt, but Tampa Bay’s offense is still far from full strength. Without healthy but resting regulars Randy Arozarena and Yandy Díaz, the Rays’ finale lineup featured five players with an OPS under .660, including the four through nine hitters. But even with Arozarena and Díaz, Tampa Bay is undermanned with Kevin Kiermaier and Mike Zunino out for the year, and impact regulars Wander Franco, Harold Ramírez and Manuel Margot not due back until at least late August.

The sheer number of injured contributors and those extended timelines make a move by the upcoming Aug. 2 Deadline likely. Additionally, the extreme positional flexibility of the Rays’ roster should allow them to go in any of many directions in their search for a bat.

“We've got to score some more runs,” Cash said. “They're working really hard to make the adjustments. It just feels like it's coming tough for a lot of guys right now. You can withstand three or four guys, but it feels like it's more than that right now.”

Not only are the Rays one of the most trade-happy teams in baseball, they also possess one of the sport’s highest-ranked farm systems, with top prospects Taj Bradley and Curtis Mead highlighting enviable depth. It makes them uniquely qualified to make a splash before Tuesday’s Deadline, perhaps as sleepers in a blockbuster-type deal for Juan Soto. Still, the Rays are more likely to seek a lesser trade for a lineup upgrade, like the deals that netted them Nelson Cruz and Jordan Luplow last summer.

Who fits that profile? Washington is also shopping Josh Bell, a switch-hitter having a career year and one of the better non-Soto bats available after the Yankees traded for Andrew Benintendi this week.

All-Star catcher Willson Contreras seems like a great fit, especially after injuries to Zunino and Francisco Mejía wiped out Tampa Bay’s high-level catching depth. Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini profiles well, though like Contreras, Bell and surprise Reds star Brandon Drury, he would only be a two-month rental.

The Rays found themselves on the wrong end of what could have been Mancini’s storybook final moment as an Oriole on Thursday, when Josh Lowe misplayed his eighth-inning sun ball into an inside-the-park-home run.

“We’ve got to find a way to get some runs across,” said Lowe, a former top prospect struggling (.206 batting average, one home run since June 20) in his first stretch of everyday playing time. “We need to put a few big hits together.”