Injuries heighten Rays' need for Trade Deadline deals

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays’ injuries are starting to pile up alongside their defeats.

A day after All-Star infielder Yandy Díaz made an early exit due to tightness in his left groin, steady starter Zach Eflin was forced to exit Tampa Bay’s 7-1 loss to Miami on Wednesday afternoon at Tropicana Field after four innings due to left knee discomfort.

Eflin left the ballpark before the game ended to have imaging done on his knee, which he tweaked while attempting to field a bunt to begin the fourth inning. He finished the fourth but did not return despite only throwing 53 pitches in the outing. The Rays are awaiting the results of his MRI to determine how severe his injury is and how long it might sideline him, if at all.

Tampa Bay will hope it’s a minor issue, but there is obviously some concern given Eflin’s injury history. The right-hander twice had surgery to repair the patellar tendon in his right knee, first in 2016 and again in ‘21, and underwent a similar operation on his left knee in September 2016.

“I'm happy that he said something and said, ‘Look, it's sore.’ We've got to protect all of them,” manager Kevin Cash said. “The last thing we want him to do, with a guy that's had some knee issues in the past, is to go out there and try to compete when it's hurting.”

Eflin managed to complete the fourth inning despite noticeably limping at times. Catcher Christian Bethancourt said the starter’s stuff looked “normal” the rest of the inning, and he didn’t bring up his discomfort after the bunt play. But that inning unraveled on Eflin with two outs, as he allowed three runs to bring his total for the day to a season-high-tying five on seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

“Maybe not quite as crisp as what we saw the other day against Baltimore,” Cash said of Eflin, who held the Orioles to two hits over seven scoreless innings on Friday. “They put together some good at-bats, and I still felt he was one pitch away from getting out of both those innings without scoring. It just didn't come today.”

Meanwhile, the Rays’ offensive woes continued as reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara spun a 97-pitch complete game and limited Tampa Bay to five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts. It was the first nine-inning complete game at Tropicana Field since the Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka shut out the Rays on July 24, 2018.

“It’s frustrating. We know he won the Cy Young. He did what he was supposed to do,” Bethancourt said. “We just didn’t hit.”

The loss to Miami concluded a six-game homestand in which the Rays won only twice, fell out of first place in the American League East for the first time all year, lost catcher Francisco Mejía (left knee MCL sprain) and infielder Taylor Walls (strained left oblique) to the injured list and saw two of their top players leave early due to injuries.

Some good news, albeit measured with caution: The results from Díaz’s MRI on Wednesday were “encouraging,” Cash said, but Díaz said after the game that he still felt “a little tight, a little sore” in the morning.

“I think it might linger a little bit, but I’m going to do everything I can to work and get the treatment so that I can avoid the IL and I can keep on playing,” he said through interpreter Manny Navarro.

The Rays can’t afford to be without their best hitter for long. They have lost eight of their last 10 games and 15 of 20 in July, and Wednesday was the 12th time this month they scored three runs or fewer. Since a 29-7 start to the season, they are 33-36 overall, still searching for something to spark their lineup.

“We, obviously, saw the potential that this lineup has. It hasn’t changed my mind, that it’s not the same lineup,” first baseman Luke Raley said. “I think everything is going to be OK. We’ve just got to get through the storm.”

Now comes a critical trip for the Rays. After a day off Thursday, they’ll face the surging Astros in Houston, meet the rival Yankees in the Bronx and head to Detroit for three games against the Tigers, with Tuesday’s Trade Deadline hanging over it all.

The rumors began flying Wednesday morning, when MLB.com confirmed the Rays were one of at least two teams engaged with the White Sox in talks about veteran starter Lance Lynn.

Tampa Bay’s need for another starter was already apparent before Eflin’s injury. The Rays will soon find out whether they’ll need more than one additional arm down the stretch.