TAMPA, Fla. _ The Rays _ a team built on pitching, defensive and timely hitting _ will decidedly be in need of late-inning heroics to pull out narrow victories this season.
However, Tampa Bay's search for success in closely-contested games continued after Boston's 4-3 win over the Rays on Sunday. It's still early, but the Rays find themselves 0-3 in one-run games this season and 0-3 in extra inning games.
More troubling, the Red Sox extended the Rays' losing streak to four games before 18,740 at Tropicana Field on Sunday.
The Rays (14-8) are left with a big question: does keeping it close stand as a positive, or is the inability to yield clutch plays represents a troubling trend that could haunt them throughout the year.
"It's hard to point out the positives because we're here to win ballgames and we haven't done that the last four days," center fielder Kevin Kiermaier said. "Today was another tough one but they got the big hit. Once again, that's kind of been the storyline of these last four days. When we've had our opportunities, we're just not capitalizing in big moments."
Boston did capitalize. The Red Sox completely manufactured the winning run, parlaying a single, a walk, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly to take the lead in the top of the 11th, but that's what great teams do: find a way. Catcher Christian Vazquez provided the winning RBI with the sacrifice fly that brought home Rafael Devers from third.
Boston's late-game effort overshadowed bounce-back efforts from three Rays who have endured recent struggles: Tommy Pham, Diego Castillo and Daniel Robertson.
Pham took an eraser to memories of his ninth-inning base-running error that ended Tampa Bay's comeback bid on Saturday by driving a Matt Barnes pitch over right center to tie the game in the eighth inning, but the Rays still needed more heroics to sustain their hopes.
They got it from Castillo, who shut down the Red Sox in the ninth and 10th innings, striking out five of the eight batters he faced. The performance came after Castillo took the loss in his last two outings, including back-to-back homers in Friday's 6-4 defeat against Boston.
Robertson, who entered the game 2-for-27, staked Tampa Bay to an early lead with an RBI double in the third inning.
In the end, however, the Rays could not complete the comeback, leaving lingering questions about its hot start to the season, as well as manager Kevin Cash's decision to pull starter Tyler Glasnow after only 76 pitches.
The Rays' beleaguered bullpen _ Tampa Bay brought up extra arms from Triple-A Durham over the last three days _ seemingly increasing the demand for Glasnow to go deep into the game on Sunday. He appeared capable, coming in with a record of 4-0 and an AL-leading 1.13 ERA.
And while Glasnow may not have been as sharp on Sunday _ walking three after issuing the same number of base on balls through 24 innings to start the year _ the hard-throwing right hander held his own, other than a solo homer by Mitch Moreland.
The right-hander limited the Red Sox to one run through 5 1/3 innings. Cash, however, turned to the bullpen after Mookie Betts reached base on a two-strike single.
"He had thrown the ball well," Cash said. "It was really a tough decision on my end. Went ahead and thought to get aggressive right there. We had a lead. We had a chance to get to our best matchups going forward and it just didn't work."
It didn't work at all. The hope was that Kolarek would induce Moreland into an inning-ending double play. But Red Sox manager Alex Cora lifted Moreland for Steve Pearce. Kolarek issued a pass to Pearce, Chaz Roe walked J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts followed with a two-run single off of Roe to erase Tampa Bay's 2-1 advantage.
Glasnow could only pull his jersey over his intense gaze as he looked on from the dugout.
Cash said he understood pitcher's frustration. To his credit, Glasnow said after the game his disappointment came only from the moment and he continues to believe in Cash's calls.
"We have such a good bullpen, I respect any decision Cash makes," Glasnow said. "Those guys have gone out and closed the door for me multiple times. That's kind of how baseball is."
The Rays' efforts to recover from the three-game continues against Kansas City on Monday, but the effort will be stunted by a thumb injury that put Austin Meadows on the injured list Sunday, and pitcher Blake Snell's lingering toe injury _ which remains a question mark and will keep him out of the series.
Another question mark: can they win the close games?
