The Rays were happy to have Ryan Yarbrough back on the mound Tuesday night in Washington.
When he had to cut short what had been a stellar outing Aug. 28 in Miami due to groin tightness, they weren't sure what to think.
Having already lost 10 pitchers to injury, including two other starters, their depth would have been further tested, as well as their patience, with an extended absence.
So for Yarbrough to walk back up the mound after spending just the minimum 10 days on the injured list was promising.
That he didn't pitch well, allowing four runs without getting out of the third inning, was disappointing.
The whole night ended up that way with a 5-3 defeat, as the Rays lost back-to-back games for the first time in a month. That dropped their American League-best record to 28-15 and could reduce their East division lead from 4-{ games, pending the result of the Blue Jays-Yankees game.
Rays pitchers tied a team single-game hit-by-pitch record by plunking four Nationals (good thing they weren't Yankees), with two coming around to score. Twice the Nationals scored runs without the benefit of a hit. Rays hitters were shut out through the first five innings by Nationals starter Anibal Sanchez, who came in with a 1-4, 6.48 mark, and struck out 11 times on the night.
The Rays offense was contained to the sixth inning, as they closed within 4-3.
Brandon Lowe blooped a single into left, Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Ji-Man Choi singled for the first run, which ended the night for Sanchez. Yoshi Tsutsugo, who has been swinging better, doubled to left to make it 4-2. And with two outs, a cross-up between Wander Suero and catcher Kurt Suzuki led to a wild pitch that made it 4-3. The Nationals extended the lead to 5-4 in the sixth.
Yarbrough was not sharp from the start, hitting leadoff man Victor Robles and walking No. 3 hitter Trea Turner in a 23-pitch first inning that yielded a run without a hit. He gave up back-to-back two-out doubles to Nos. 8 and 9 hitters Brock Holt and Carter Kieboom in a 20-pitch, one-run second. And he allowed four hits and hit another batter in a messy 27-pitch third that doubled the Nats' lead to 4-0. Aaron Slegers replaced him to get the final out of the third.
For his short night, Yarbrough threw 70 pitches, with only 43 for strikes, allowing the four runs on six hits, a walk and the two hit batters, striking out one. He got only seven swing-and-misses, was behind from the start on nine of the 17 batters and threw four or more pitches to 10, working at a slow pace.
Yarbrough insisted in interviews Monday that he felt fine, that the groin was no longer an issue, that the intense bullpen session he threw Friday proved the time off was not going to inhibit his effectiveness.
"I'm feeling really great right now," Yarbrough said. "Until they take the ball out of my hand, I'm just going to go out there and do what I had been doing, especially that last outing in Miami, and build off what I was doing really well and continue to put some good at-bats and good innings together."
The Rays were certainly hoping for him to be sharp.
"He's really good," manager Kevin Cash said Monday. "He's such a big part of our team. Yarbs is one of the best in baseball at producing weak contact. He just doesn't get barreled up, and that's a credit to him and the stuff he features. Sure, there are a handful of starts for every pitcher that you wish you could have back. We get a lot of consistency out of Yarbs, and we're really excited to get him back. We want to get him built up here toward the end of the season and see where that ends up."
Having Yarbrough back had the Rays feeling pretty good about the state of their rotation overall, despite losing Yonny Chirinos for the season (and likely all of 2021) due to an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery and having to summon prospect Josh Fleming, who made only three starts above Double-A last year.
Charlie Morton looked good Monday, working five innings in his second start back after missing three weeks with inflammation in the deltoid muscle in his shoulder. Fleming has won his first three starts. And Yarbrough was back.
"I hope we can do some special things here these next couple weeks," Cash said before Tuesday's game. "They're such a big part of our team and us having success. Those guys, when they're right, they're carrying a pretty substantial workload as far as innings pitched. (Monday) night was big with Charlie. He was so efficient to be able to get five clean innings, full innings. He's getting really close to just being himself. We've been fortunate with Tyler and Blake to be able to do that."
Yarbrough said he was pleased to be back as soon as planned.
