Rays ready to 'completely forget' Rangers sweep to wrap road trip

ARLINGTON -- After spending three months hovering around the .500 mark, the Rays arrived in Texas late Thursday night with some long-awaited momentum on their side.

They had won five straight series, fresh off a three-game set in Kansas City that gave them a winning record for the first time since late May. They were hitting better, playing improved defense and adding Shane Baz to a rotation featuring red-hot starter Taj Bradley.

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But that momentum did not carry them through the weekend. They left Globe Life Field on Sunday afternoon having been swept by the Rangers, a tough series punctuated by a lopsided 13-2 loss in the finale.

“This certainly wasn't our best series,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Today was definitely not our best game in all facets.”

It’s critical that the Rays get back on track quickly, especially as they host the Yankees and Guardians -- two of the American League’s top three teams -- heading into the All-Star break. They’re back on the wrong side of .500 at 44-46, and five games out of a Wild Card spot, with the Trade Deadline looming at the end of the month.

“It's three games, but I mean, there definitely needs to be just some urgency from all of us. I think we all feel that,” outfielder Josh Lowe said. “I think we know what we're capable of. You take this series away, I think we won five series in a row before that, right? That's pretty good.

“We just need to completely forget that we came to Texas and go back home and play some good baseball.”

Even after being swept for the fourth time this season, the Rays have won 10 of their last 17 games. Lowe’s suggestion about forgetting this entire weekend at Globe Life Field, where they have dropped each of their last six games, might be their best course of action.

“Obviously from here on out every series is pretty important, especially coming to the Deadline and beyond,” starter Zack Littell said. “As far as putting pressure on ourselves to win these next two because we are limping into the break, I wouldn’t say that. I think it’s just a matter of trying to go out there every single series and play good baseball.”

After scoring 17 runs on 30 hits against the Royals to begin the road trip, the Rays put up only five runs on 15 hits this weekend. They went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position during the first two games, then didn’t have a single at-bat with a runner in scoring position on Sunday.

José Caballero homered off Nathan Eovaldi in the third inning, briefly giving them a 2-1 lead. But they managed only two hits the rest of the way and didn’t draw a single walk.

“Their pitchers did a good job, but I'd like to think we can have some better at-bats and find ways to score runs, get guys on base,” Cash said.

It was even worse on the mound. The Rays gave up a season-high 13 runs and 19 hits, the most they’ve allowed in a game since they served up a franchise-record 27 hits against the Blue Jays on May 23, 2023.

Littell surrendered a season-high seven runs on nine hits. Six of those runs came in the fourth inning, when he gave up four singles, a walk and a three-run homer to Corey Seager as the Rangers sent nine men to the plate.

“Too good of a lineup to make bad pitches [against]. They put together good at-bats, got deep into counts, and when I came over the plate, they hit it,” said Littell, whose ERA jumped from 3.94 to 4.44. “Just tough to do it on a day where we kind of need to come up with a win. And then as far as the rest of the game, I kind of set the tone on that, so that's on me.”

Reliever Shawn Armstrong’s inexplicable struggles continued in frustrating fashion in the fifth, as he permitted three runs on five singles, four of which were hit softly between 51.2 and 73.5 mph. One run scored on a Travis Jankowski bouncer that looked like it might roll foul, only to stay fair.

That perfectly but unfortunately encapsulated this rut for Armstrong, who has given up 15 runs in seven innings over his last seven appearances.

“Sometimes the ball rolls that way,” Armstrong said. “I talked with [pitching coach Kyle] Snyder about it, and he told me in the dugout, he's like, 'I've watched a lot of baseball, and I don't really have words for the stretch that's going on right now.' … Again, I don't really have any answers for it.”