Rays Strike Early But Get Blown Out By Royals, 8-1

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After a day off, the Tampa Bay Rays are looking to regroup after a four-game losing streak. The Rays have struggled in those games as they took their second sweep of the season. It is funny that they come against the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox. It was the first time since 2022 they were swept by the Red Sox. The past series was the first time Boston won a series at Tropicana Field since 2019. As for the opponents last night, the Kansas City Royals come in on a six-game winning streak. The same Royals that lost 106 games with only 56 wins. Currently, they have 32 wins, 24 shy of last season’s total. In last night’s game, the Royals had one of the hottest pitchers Seth Lugo who is 7-1 with a 1.79 ERA.

Photo Credit: Bradley Walker NGSC Sports

The Tampa Bay Rays countered Lugo with the bullpen strategy. Shawn Armstrong would be the first out of the bullpen. He is currently 1-1 with a 4.03 ERA. The Rays have to work on getting timely hits and when they get a lead, keep it. In the three games against the Red Sox, they gave away two of them in which they got those leads early in games. The Royals carry one of the league’s rising stars in Bobby Witt Jr. He is currently hitting .308. From a bird’s eye view of the field, both teams took batting practice and looked relaxed and ready. The Rays Josh Lowe had an MRI but the results were inconclusive. He might be heading to the IR again and the big question is for how long? The Rays hope he will help them as a lefty bat in the lineup.

The Kansas City Royals wore their all-grey uniforms with royal blue hats. The Tampa Bay Rays wore Devil Rays-themed all-white jerseys with dark blue caps. Brandon Lowe got his first hit since coming off the IR in the bottom of the first inning. He would come around to score and the Rays took an early lead. “Randy Land” in left field cheered for him as he came up to bat throughout the game. Armstrong was great throwing two perfect innings allowing no runners for the Royals. With the bullpen day, Armstrong exited after two innings and the next pitcher up was Tyler Alexander. The Royals loaded the bases in the top of the fourth and Alexander walked in the first run to tie the game. The tie would not last long as Hunter Renfroe grounded to second but the Rays couldn’t turn the double play and Kansas City took the lead 2-1.

Kansas City would strike again in the top of the fifth on a three-run home run by Michael Massey. Like the three previous games, the Rays got an early lead and then it evaporated. Hunter Renfroe avoided the tag after Jackson dropped the ball at home giving the Royals a 6-1 lead. Kansas City continued to put pressure on the Rays defense by stealing bases. The atmosphere inside Tropicana Field was one of frustration from the fans and players. Kansas City added another with a solo home run from their All-Star Bobby Witt Jr increasing their lead to 7-1. Rays pitching also struggled with hit batters. On a double by Freddy Fermin, Vinnie Pasquantino came around to score after being hit by a pitch. The game was getting away from the Tampa Bay Rays in a hurry.

With nine outs to work with the Rays trailed 8-1. The Rays finally made a pitching change but the damage was done. There were 16,368 people in attendance mostly cheering for the Kansas City Royals. Phil Maton walked three consecutive hitters to start the top of the 8th. The Rays got out of the base load jam and still trialed by seven runs. As the game moved into the final frame the Royals could tack on more runs and make the climb for the Tampa Bay Rays even harder. It was good that did not happen as Tampa was down seven with three outs to work with. On Randy Land night Arozarena goes 0 for 4 at the plate flying out to deep center field in the bottom of the ninth. The losing streak goes to five as they fall to the Royals 8-1.