Some days just aren’t your day. Sunday was not the Tampa Bay Rays best day. Blake Snell allowed more home runs than he had in any of his career starts. He did that in less than 4 innings. The 3 homers Snell gave up in the 2nd inning were a bad omen for the rest of the ball game. Andrew Kittredge came in in relief of Snell and things didn’t get any better. Every batter he faced reached and before we knew it the Orioles had an 11-0 lead. Dylan Bundy performed exponentially better than his last start and didn’t allow a run in 7 innings of work. The Rays were ultimately dealt a 17-1 loss.
Both teams left runners in scoring position in the 1st because the starters got strikeouts to end their respective innings. That good fortune didn’t last for the Rays in the 2nd inning. To start the inning Danny Valencia and Joey Rickard hit back to back solo jacks off of Snell to get the scoring going. A few batters later, Trey Mancini went yard off of Snell for the 3rd homerun of the inning and make it 3-0 Baltimore. Snell didn’t get any help from his defense in the next frame. A Matt Duffy throwing error led to another run being scored. Snell then couldn’t get through the 4th inning and was taken out after just recording 1 out in the 4th. Snell ended up allowing 5 runs as he was charged with run when Kittredge couldn’t pick up the slack.
That is when the real damage started. Doubles from Manny Machado and Johnathan Schoop made it a 7-0 game. Then Joey Rickard struck again. His 2nd homer of the game was of the 3-run variety. That made it an 11-0 game in the 4th inning and Baltimore never looked back. After Bundy couldn’t record an out in his last start, he quieted the Rays bats in this one. Bundy pitched 7 innings of scoreless ball to get the victory.
Austin Pruitt came in to relieve Kittredge in the 4th and performed admirably until the 7th. Valencia and Machado added to their RBI totals, so did Rickard. Before the inning was over the scoreboard looked even more like one at a football stadium. A 6th run inning made it a 17-0 Baltimore lead. The loss would have been the worst shutout loss in the history of the team. They avoided giving up the most runs in team history, which was 22. It wasn’t the worst shutout loss in team history thanks to Denard Span’s RBI single in the top of the 8th that finally got Tampa Bay on the board. Other things of note in the loss were Wilson Ramos having his 18-game hit streak ending and position player Johnny Field pitching the 8th inning for Tampa Bay.
The road trip for the Rays continues tomorrow in Kansas City. Ryan Yarbrough will get the start for Tampa Bay. 1st pitch is scheduled for shortly after 7 pm. Coverage gets going at 6 pm right here on WDAE with Steve Carney and the inside pitch.