Rays Baseball: No Crowd, No Hope as Rays Fall 6-1 to Astros

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The Tampa Bay Rays have once again gone on a roller coaster ride. They got through the trade deadline and started to win games to get over .500. The Baltimore Orioles almost swept the Rays over the weekend. They are just one game over .500 after sneaking out a win yesterday 2-1. Until yesterday, Baltimore held an eight-game road winning streak over the Rays. Tampa Bay also avoided its fifth sweep of the season. The schedule gets more challenging and the Houston Astros are in for the next three games—the same Astros who just got done sweeping the Boston Red Sox. Houston is tied with the Seattle Mariners for the AL West. Tampa Bay is still trying to find a way to climb back into the final wild-card spot.

The game one pitching matchup was, for the Houston Astros, Framber Valdez who is 11-5 with a 3.46 ERA and 113 strikeouts. The Tampa Bay Rays started Taj Bradley who is 6-6 with a 3.07 ERA and 106 strikeouts. Bradley has struggled in his last few starts and the Rays were hoping he would return to the strikeout machine he has been most of the season. Houston uniforms were navy blue tops with orange lettering grey pants, and navy blue caps. Tampa’s uniforms were baby blue tops, white pants, and navy blue caps. The crowd was non-existent. Maybe it was because the team had started to go on a losing streak. The Rays were facing a starting pitcher that could throw a no-hitter so we had to sit back to see what happened.

The Astros did not take long to get on the board as Alex Bregman hit a solo home run. Would the no-hitter be put to sleep as left-fielder Dylan Carlson a new acquisition got a single?

Bradley looked a little rattled in the top of the third. He slipped on his delivery and was having issues. The Astros added to their lead on a RBI single by Yordan Alvarez. The hitter after Alvarez was Yainer Diaz who hit a three-run home run. Houston led 5-0. Bradley’s struggles continued as he hit Jeremy Pena. The Astros hit around sending all nine men to the plate in the top of the third. The Rays got on the board on a sac fly by Jose Caballero. Taylor Walls scored after he hit a misplayed catch that resulted in a triple.

Bradley only lasted four and 1/3 innings giving up eight hits, five runs all earned, two walks, six strikeouts, and two home runs. Through five innings, Tampa only had three hits two of them from Taylor Walls who was 2 for 2 with a triple and double. Valdez lasted 5 ⅔ giving up three hits, one run that was earned, one walk, and nine strikeouts. The announced attendance was only 10,540. The Tampa Bay Rays played an uninspired game and it showed. As a team, they only managed four hits and one run. Taj Bradley struggled again and Framber Valdez looked dominant. The final score was 6-1 but the Rays are lucky it was not more.

Are the Tampa Bay Rays going to be able to bounce back in game two? Leave a comment below.

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