ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Taylor Walls stood at his stall in the Rays’ clubhouse with his uniform caked with dirt after having done all he could to will his team to victory against visiting Houston on Wednesday evening. Alas, in a 10-inning affair in which both teams had all of two hits, the Rays came up short, 2-1.
The Astros left town with a sweep of a three-game series and saddled the hosts with a 1-5 record on a nine-game homestand. The Diamondbacks visit St. Pete for a three-game series beginning Friday night.
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The Rays, who at 59-61 and 6.5 games behind the Royals for the final wild-card spot in the American League with three teams to hurdle, cannot shake their struggles at the plate, especially with runners in scoring position. They went 1-for-13 in such situations in the Houston series, including 0-for-7 Wednesday. That included three attempts in failing to advance Junior Caminero, the automatic runner who began the 10th inning at second base, as far as third let alone score him to tie the game.
The Rays are hitting .217 this season with runners in scoring position, second-to-last in MLB. As a result, another outstanding effort on the mound was wasted as Zack Littell and five relievers combined to limit Houston to a pair of hits. In fact, the bullpen has a remarkable 0.85 ERA this month.
“It sucks not being able to get these guys some runs, especially when they have performances like they had (Wednesday),” said Walls, who manufactured the Rays’ only run in the eighth. “We have to keep getting after it, try to make adjustments and try to find ways to better game plan and have better approaches.”
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A revamped lineup that saw Randy Arozarena, Isaac Paredes and Amed Rosario dealt at the trade deadline, has 42 games to discover a way, any which way, to click.
“Guys have to step up and we have to come together and find ways to win,” said Walls, noting how tough the deadline was. “It’s a reevaluation of everybody individually, as a team, as a lineup, trying to find ways to put it together and kind of create a new identity for ourselves.”
Walls did his best to force the issue. With the Rays trailing 1-0, he led off the eighth with a walk. As he took off for second, Jose Siri hit a grounder to shortstop Jeremy Pena, who flipped the ball to second baseman Jose Altuve in an attempt to at least get the force. Pena’s flip was more of a floater and Walls was safe, though Altuve fired to first to get Siri, who did not go all out down the line. While Walls would eventually score thanks to his hustle in beating a throw home on a Yandy Diaz grounder, he was on second with one out instead of having men on first and second with no outs.
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“Ideally, we are busting it out of the box,” said manager Kevin Cash. “We did such a good job of putting (Walls) in motion and beating (Pena’s flip). You like to see us put more pressure on the defense when we are capable of it.”
Arizona will enter the weekend series at the Trop tied with the Padres for the top wild-card spot in the National League. Torey Lovullo’s team has won six straight and 18 of 21 despite first baseman Christian Walker (23 HR, .814 OPS) having missed three weeks due to an oblique strain. Ketel Marte (30 HR, .930 OPS) is day-to-day with a sprained ankle.
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