ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ There was some excitement at Tropicana Field on Friday, though primarily over the promotion of promising pitching prospect Brendan McKay, who will make his big league debut for the Rays on Saturday, and the return of reliever Jose Alvarado, who'd been gone nearly a month attending to family matters.
There was some intrigue, principally around whether the fans who protested loudly on social media and radio call-ins about the Rays proposal to shift half their games to Montreal in future seasons would show their feelings. If so, beyond a few Expos caps and one outfield sign, it must have been a silent movement.
And there was some baseball, which actually wasn't all that interesting.
The Rays talked a lot before the game of hoping Thursday's marathon win in Minneapolis would be a galvanizing moment that ended their latest skid, including losing seven of 10 on the just-completed road trip, and spark them to a strong push to the July 8-11 All-Star break, a good start to the second half of their schedule and maybe beyond.
"We needed a win," manager Kevin Cash said before Friday's game. "We kept saying that throughout the entire road trip. We said it too many times. But we've got an opportunity to get back home, to play some better baseball at home and to hopefully finish strong going into the break."
Well, it sounded good, anyway.
And instead of an inspirational win, it was another uninspiring loss, this one 4-0 to the Texas Rangers.
The same Rangers who are now tied with the Rays for what would be the two AL wild-card spots, as the Rays dropped back to seven games behind the East leading Yankees and only two ahead of the third-place Red Sox.
Before taking the field, Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier tried to make a case for how the struggles since their best-in-baseball 14-4 start was a blessing.
"Earlier in the year where we had the best record in baseball and then we hit a rough patch, I think that was needed because we might've all thought we were better than we really are, I guess you could say," Kiermaier said. "Even playing three playoff contending teams in a row (on the road trip to New York, Oakland and Minnesota) kind of showed us, "Hey we have a really good team and we can beat these guys,' but we still have a lot that we need to figure out. That's just the competitive side of me talking being realistic with everything I'm saying. ...
"Unfortunately it took us 18 innings to pull it off, but at the same time everyone was so happy in the clubhouse afterwards, and it was a fun plane ride home. It feels good to be home for 10 days and get back into a routine and play in front of our fans. We need that, and we need to close out this first half on a high note."
Instead the Rays came out and looked a bit like a team that had been crisscrossing the country for nearly two weeks and got home around 2 a.m. Friday after playing 18 innings on Thursday in Minneapolis, which they were.
Starter Yonny Chirinos gave the Rays six innings, which was welcomed given the heavy use of their bullpen on Thursday.
Unfortunately he also gave up four runs.
And it was kind of a messy showing, as he walked four, balked and made a costly errant throw while needing 105 pitches to get his 18 outs.
After zipping through an eight-pitch first inning, Chirinos had all kinds of trouble in the second. He walked the first and third batters and both scored as he then gave up back to back doubles to Rougned Odor and Ronald Guzman, giving the Rangers a 3-0 lead.
Most evidently in the third inning.
And after the Rangers made their own boneheaded play by Elvis Andrus after a walk sent him to second, as he took a wide turn when Rays shortstop Willy Adames acted like a live throw went by him and broke for third, only to be easily tagged out in a rundown.
But the Rays topped that moments later. Joey Gallo beat out a right side grounder for an infield single, and when Chirinos got the ball back from first baseman Ji-Man Choi he inexplicably fired to second. He was trying, it seemed, to catch Nomar Mazara off the bag, but his errant throw sailed to left-center and instead allowed Mazara to score, extending the lead to 4-0.
The Rays didn't do much at the plate, held to three hits over eight innings by Lance Lynn, one a leadoff single by Brandon Lowe and another a second inning blooper by Joey Wendle. Adames doubled in the eighth. Jose Leclerc worked the ninth.
After scoring in only two of the 18 innings Thursday and being shutout Friday, the Rays have posted zeroes in 25 of their last 27 innings.
