Baserunning miscues a glaring issue in loss

ST. PETERSBURG -- Rays ace Shane McClanahan did his job Friday night at Tropicana Field. The left-hander returned to top form with eight strikeouts over seven efficient innings, limiting the Royals to two runs on one swing: a Bobby Witt Jr. home run in the third inning.

The Rays came back to tie the game, but they ran their way out of several scoring opportunities and ultimately lost 3-2 in the 10th, falling back to the third American League Wild Card spot.

Outs on the bases have been an issue for the Rays all season. They lead the Majors, by a wide margin, with 56 -- a total that doesn’t even include when they’ve been caught stealing, picked off or thrown out on force plays. But they’ve also been caught stealing 31 times, most in the Majors, and picked off an additional nine times.

They ran into three such outs at critical points on Friday, and they all loomed large as they lost for the ninth time in 17 extra-inning games this season.

“[McClanahan] had a heck of a performance. We had a lot of opportunities to score runs and just didn't,” shortstop Taylor Walls said. “They made a few good plays. We made a few mistakes. Can't do much about it but look forward to tomorrow.”

Before we do that, let’s look back at the Rays’ three key outs on the bases:

Picked off
The Rays’ first, biggest and most vexing mistake came in the third inning. Down by two after Witt’s homer, they immediately responded by loading the bases with two outs and Randy Arozarena at the plate.

But veteran Royals catcher Salvador Perez noticed Harold Ramírez lingering too far off second base and called for a pickoff. Right-hander Brady Singer turned, threw and picked off Ramírez, taking the chance to turn the game away from Arozarena.

“It was just a good play by them. We probably got a little too far off,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Two outs right there, with Randy, we like our chances.”

Ramírez didn’t have an explanation for why he was so far off second base, but he said he was frustrated because second baseman Nicky Lopez told him he thought he missed the tag. The call went to a replay review, however, and was upheld.

“Right after, [Lopez] told me, 'I don't know why he called out,'” Ramírez said. “If he tagged me, that's my fault. But he missed me, and they still called the out.”

Thrown out
Arozarena eventually tied the game with a two-run single off Singer, so the Rays just needed one more run to complete the comeback victory. Walls hit a one-out single to left in the ninth, but he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

It was a calculated risk to get a runner into scoring position. The Rays were right to test left fielder MJ Melendez, who is primarily a catcher, on a tricky play, but Walls slipped off the bag after initially evading second baseman Michael Massey’s tag.

“With him having to go to his right, throw against his momentum and not having played there a lot, the throw would have to be perfect -- which it was, and I still beat it,” Walls said. “If I hold on to the bag there, it's a runner on second with one out.”

Caught stealing
The Royals played small ball to scratch across the go-ahead run against lefty Jalen Beeks in the 10th. Lopez dropped a sacrifice bunt to advance the automatic runner from second to third, then Massey hit a sacrifice fly to right.

Meanwhile, the Rays couldn’t capitalize on having the speedy Roman Quinn at second. Yandy Díaz put a ball in play but hit it right to Lopez at shortstop, which led Quinn to backtrack rather than risk making an out at third. Quinn said he didn’t get a good read on the ball and later lamented not taking his chances at that point.

Then, Cash acknowledged, the Rays had to “force it a little bit” to get the tying run to third for Francisco Mejía. But Perez sniffed that one out, too, and prepared accordingly. Sure enough, Quinn took off, and Perez cut him down at third with a perfect throw.

“It was right on the money,” Quinn said. “Almost like, he probably knew it was coming.”

Turns out, Perez said, he did. Given the Rays’ reputation for running the bases, he was ready.

“That’s kind of their thing,” Perez said. “They like to run the bases, take advantage of what they can.”