ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Yonny Chirinos came into Tuesday night as a bright spot in the Rays' 4-12 start, the rookie right-hander making a case to join the starting rotation by throwing 141/3 innings to start his major-league career without allowing a run.
That came to an inevitable end, however, as the first batter of the game scored, and the Rangers, first with three sacrifice flies then with clutch hitting, pulled away to a 7-2 win at Tropicana Field.
The Rays (4-13), who had 13 hits the night before against Texas (7-12) in an 8-4 win, couldn't get to former Tampa Bay pitcher Matt Moore (1-3), pitching against his old team for the first time. Moore came in with an 8.76 ERA but kept the runners on the basepaths early, then shut the Rays down.
Chirinos (0-1) pitched the longest outing of his short career but ran into trouble in the fifth. A walk and single set up a sac fly for a 3-1 lead, then Ronald Guzman hit a two-out, two-run double to make it 5-1. Shin-Soo Choo added a solo home run in the sixth to end the night for Chirinos.
The Rays had two on in the first and second but couldn't score _ they hit into inning-ending double plays three times in the first five innings, then again in the eighth. C.J. Cron singled in Daniel Robertson in the third, and Wilson Ramos hit his first homer of the season in the ninth.
Shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria went 3-for-4 on the night, but the rest of the Rays lineup went 4-for-26. The Rays scored two runs or fewer for the eighth time in their 17 games, dropping to 0-8 when doing so.
Texas, meanwhile, got runners to third quickly then got just enough distance to bring them home. Adrian Beltre, whose rookie year in 1998 was the same as the Rays, had two sacrifice flies and Choo had the other. The Rangers won easily despite going 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position.
While the Rays got runners on early against Moore with five hits in the first three innings, he settled down and didn't allow a hit in his last four. When the Rays got two on in the eighth against another former Rays pitcher in reliever Kevin Jepsen, again Cron hit into a double play to end the rally.
Tampa Bay played even more shorthanded Tuesday, with third baseman Matt Duffy (hamstring) joining Brad Miller (groin) and Kevin Kiermaier (thumb) on the disabled list. The replacement lineup included Johnny Field, who made his major-league debut Saturday, and Brandon Snyder, called up to make his Rays debut on Tuesday.
The Rays got some relief from right-hander Hunter Wood, called up from Durham before the game. He relieved Chirinos in the sixth and stayed in, coming up with two innings of scoreless relief before giving up a single run in the eighth.
After drawing at least 13,000 in each of their first seven games, the Rays failed to hit 10,000 for the second night in a row, with an announced 8,972 for Tuesday's game.
