BALTIMORE _ Rays coaches spoke confidently Saturday afternoon about how Jose Alvarado would soon get his wayward pitches straightened out, and optimistically that it would start Saturday night when made him the opener so he could pitch freely in the less-pressurized environment.
"I think we're all hopeful he's just going out there and take a big deep breath and do what he knows he's capable of and what we all know he's capable of," pitching coach Kyle Snyder said.
And be back being a force at the back end of the bullpen as he has for us the last couple years."
They talked a really good game.
And Alvarado gave them a really bad one.
He faced five Baltimore batters, starting each with a ball, and retired only one.
He threw 24 pitches and just nine for strikes, one of them hit for a single.
He allowed one run, on one of the two wild pitches he threw.
He was so erratic that manager Kevin Cash didn't let him finish the fifth at-bat, pulling him when the count went to 3-0 on D.J. Stewart with runners on third and second, presumably fearful of another run-scoring wild pitch.
And then Cash had Stewart walked intentionally so Austin Pruitt could come in with a clean count on Pedro Severino.
Worse, Pruitt wasn't very good behind him, as by the fourth inning the Rays were down 7-0 and they lost, 7-1.
That wasn't good for a team that started the day hold the top AL wild-card spot and with a 76-54 record that marked their first time 22 games over .500 since they finished the 2010 season at 96-66, when they won their second AL East title. The teams behind them, the A's and Indians, played later Saturday.
Alvarado's demise this season has become a major issue for the Rays. He went into play Saturday 1-5, 4.55 with seven saves in nine chances, allowing 28 hits and 24 walks in 29 2/3 innings while striking out 39. Only 59% of pitches had been strikes, per baseball-reference.com, the lowest mark by a Ray with at least 30 appearances since Grant Balfour was at the same point in 2014.
Especially after Alvarado started so well, designated the de factor closer and pitching like one, going 0-2 with four saves, five holds and a 1.04 ERA in 18 games.
But he began so show some inconsistencies in mid-May, starting with an ugly blown save at Yankee Stadium on May 17. Counting that game, he went 0-2, converting two of four saves and a 9.00 over eight outings.
Then he left the team to go to Venezuela for what were said to be personal reasons, and was gone a month, saying when he returned he was attending to his mother, who was in ill health but recovered.
The month away seemed to matter, as he didn't look to be in the best shape, and he didn't pitch well. Worse, he pulled an oblique muscle in his fourth game and missed another five weeks.
Strike-throwing has been a problem since his return, as he walked five of his first 17 batters, and three more out of the five he faced on Saturday.
Manager Kevin Cash said it was clear to him when Alvarado's season went awry.
"When he had to go home, that certainly didn't help," he said. "I know there were some struggles before that, but this game is tough, hitting, pitching, whatever it is. Basically a month without that competitive environment, it's going to be real tough to flip a switch and get it back on."
Knowing how much of a weapon a lefty with a fastball averaging more than 98 mph can be, the Rays have tried to get him back on track.
Thursday, that entailed giving him a high leverage opportunity, bringing him in the eighth inning with a 4-2 lead.
But he walked the first hitter and allowed a single to the second before getting a groundout that moved up the runners. Cash pulled him then, and had some candid comments after.
"We've got to get Josie going, somehow," he said. "We can't have pitchers on this staff that we can't have confidence using. Right now Josie's pitching with basically half a pitch. He's got a fastball that sometimes he throws it for a strike, sometimes he doesn't. The breaking ball has not been a factor him."
Cash, pitching coach Kyle Snyder and other team officials talked about his struggles and decided to have him work as the opener Saturday. They figured the less pressurized situation would help, and maybe the different look. Also, that it worked previously for a few other control challenged relievers, most notably Ryne Stanek and Diego Castillo.
"It's been an up and down year for Jose obviously there's been a lot on his plate, on his mind regarding the family stuff so on and so forth," Snyder said. "Cash and I were talking the last couple days of the benefit it had with Ryne, it appeared to have with Diego.
"I think not having a certain number of outs behind him, not every pitch hanging in the balance like it was (Thursday). I do feel like can benefit him. Maybe even give him a little bit of a blow. This gives us the lower-leverage situation that we've been trying to find for him, that little softer landing as he's returned."
It seemed like such a good plan.
