ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ The walkoff victories the previous two days provided a mask for what's been an ongoing concern about the Rays recent lack of offense. At least they scored enough when it mattered to win another series.
But Monday's abysmal two-inning outing by starter Brendan McKay in an ugly 9-3 loss to the Mariners came with no such salve.
Plus, it dropped them to 73-53, reducing their hold on the second AL wild card to one game over Oakland. And before a quiet Trop, with an announced gathering of only 9,152, which included a couple thousand free Military Monday tickets.
Injuries have sidelined three of the Rays top starters, Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Yonny Chirinos, at least into September.
Charlie Morton, their lone fulltime starter, is doing everything he can, especially for a 35-year-old headed for the heaviest workload of his career. Ryan Yarbrough has stepped out from pitching behind an opener impressively to become a dependable No. 2.
But somebody has to pitch the other days, and right now that's a major problem.
And one without any easy answers, as about the most solid option the Rays have at Triple-A would seem to be Austin Pruitt. Or maybe Jose De Leon.
So you kind of get the point.
McKay, the 2017 first-round pick with the unique two-way skills, seemed like he was ready to step in as he zoomed through Double- and Triple-A earlier this season and made that dazzling June 29 debut against the Rangers.
He had an okay outing against the Yankees after that, then a pretty good one against the Orioles.
But it's been a struggle since then, and with Monday's outing being his worst, the question at least has to be raised if it will be a losing battle this season.
McKay doesn't have overpowering stuff, so he succeeds by throwing the ball precisely where he wants it. Even when he gives up runs, it's usually because the batters are hitting strikes.
In his first six starts for the Rays, he faced 125 batters over 29 2/3 innings and walked three.
The first cracks, or maybe fissures, in that plan surfaced Wednesday in San Diego, when he walked three of the first six Padres, and six for afternoon, which lasted only four innings. He didn't make much of it, saying he just didn't have his usual command.
But McKay got off to another rough start Monday against the Mariners. He got one quick out, then lost an 11-pitch battle to walk J.P. Crawford, then immediately fell behind Aaron Nola and walked him as well. An out later he lost an 0-2 advantage to Tom Murphy and gave up a three-run on a 2-2 94 mph fastball.
The second inning wasn't much better as he gave up four more runs, with another walk, and to somewhat free-swinging Keon Broxton at that, factoring in.
Some accompanying sloppiness by the Rays defense, including errors on Willy Adames (throwing) and Eric Sogard (catching) at least made the runs unearned so they didn't further inflate McKay's stats.
Still, in his last five starts, he is 1-3 with an 8.67 ERA, having allowed 31 hits and 11 walks in 19 2/3 innings.
What else do the Rays have?
Jalen Beeks, who is slated for the bulk of the innings on Tuesday, hasn't been very good much of the season, and even worse since returning from a stint in Triple-A around the All-Star break.
In six games (three starts) since, he is 0-3 with a 7.61 ERA, allowing 45 baserunners in 23 2/3 innings, with a .327 opponents average and .963 OPS. After he went five so-so innings in San Diego on Wednesday, manager Kevin Cash said they "certainly need him to press the gas pedal a little bit for us here going forward."
And Trevor Richards wasn't exactly impressive in his Rays debut on Sunday, called up after being acquired July 31 from the Marlins, who had moved him to the bullpen, and then sent to Durham for a couple outings to get stretched back.
Richards worked 3 1/3 innings, and throwing 71 pitches to get there, allowing eight hits and a walk, though with six strikeouts. He is a fastball/changeup pitcher who also need to be sharp to be successful.
Going into the game, the Rays had a path to success for McKay.
"Trust your stuff," Cash said. "We saw (Yarbrough) a little bit early on in the year maybe not trust his stuff to throw it over the plate consistently.
"And it looked like that's what Brendan was trying to do (his last start). He's a location / command guy. But at some point, if you don't have that best command, that location that day, you got to make an adjustment and show, provide the willingness to throw it over the plate and get ahead of batters.
"If you fall behind in this league the league's going to get you. And I think Brendan's stuff is plenty good enough to attack in the zone early on."
