Through four innings, this was an enjoyable game.
Joe Boyle and Colin Rea took two different approaches attacking hitters as each limited the other side to just one run. Boyle made an early mistake missing his location on a putaway sweeper that Nico Hoerner converted into a leadoff home run, but then Boyle quickly rebounded to retire the next batter and then execute that first sequence to Alex Bregman. Boyle did not miss that time and got the well-disciplined veteran on a check swing to strike out. Boyle, for the next three innings, went on to show more growth as he looked to distance himself from his days of wildness mixing in his new sinker and improved sweeper while aggressively attacking the strike zone.
Then, the 5th inning happened and the rather enjoyable game evolved into another cavalcade of self-inflicted problems to completely change the tone of the game.
The fifth inning opened with Boyle being a bit wild inside with his first two pitches before finding the zone again until Carson Kelly tried to pull a Derek Jeter and milk a hit-by-pitch on a ball which clearly hit the knob of the bat. The Rays successfully challenged the play, but Kelly took what felt like a commercial break to redress with his acoutrements. The long delay between pitches may have gotten to Boyle as he missed high on the next pitch and then hung another slider which resulted in a leadoff double to Kelly. The next at bat was a five-pitch walk to Ballesteros with only one of the pitches in the zone which was followed by a similar at bat to Dansby Swanson that loaded the bases with no outs. Those three runners would quickly come around to score on the next pitch that Michael Conforto drove off the centerfield fence with some extra help from the Rays poor defensive execution:
The Rays were charged with two throwing errors on the play, but charging Fraley with a throwing error was questionable in the moment and I’m still not sure how that is an error on him as Taylor Walls did not exactly make himself big for a cutoff throw and the throw scooted by him. The throw at least ended up close to second base, but then Jonathan Aranda doubled down on the miscue throwing wildly by Hunter Feduccia at home in an attempt to nab Dansby Swanson trying to score. Boyle would be allowed to stay in and he retired Matt Shaw in an eight-pitch at bat before Nico Hoerner took a 99-mph fastball off the outer half the other way down the line for a double. Five pitches later, an infield dribbler by Michael Busch was thrown down into the Rays’ bullpen by Feduccia for the third throwing error of the contest leading to the fifth run of the inning and Boyle’s departure after 34 pitches that frame.
Jesse Scholtens would come in to finish the contest and looked as good as Boyle did the first four innings. The Rays offense disappeared in the middle of the game as Colin Rea, Hoby Milner, and Ben Brown retired 12 straight until an 8th inning single by Aranda, a wild pitch by Brown, and a single by Fraley brough in a late run in the 8th. Chandler Simpson got on in the 9th and promptly stole second, but inexplicably tried stealing third with no outs and was thrown out on a perfect peg and tag by the duo of Kelly and Bregman.
Tonight was the third time this month the Rays have committed at least three errors in a contest and the 5th time in their past 25 contests dating back to the late September weekend when they did so in consecutive games against Boston. That is simply unacceptable for any team, let alone one who plans on relying upon pitching and defense to keep them in games.
Losses heading into an off-day always feel doubly painful, and things do not get easier this weekend with the Yankees coming to town with the front of their rotation ready for battle.
