ST. PETERSBURG — Manager Kevin Cash spoke Sunday morning about the momentum his Rays had rebuilt in the last few weeks by winning 13 of their last 17 games, and wanting to carry that into the All-Star break.
Read more From staunch critic to fierce ally: Graham’s long, strange and consequential friendship with Trump
They’ll need to skip past what happened Sunday to do so.
The Rays didn’t pitch well, didn’t hit much and didn’t play their usual good defense, losing 8-2 to a Mariners team that seemed just fine limping toward the end of a cross-country road trip, having lost five straight between Miami and St. Petersburg.
The game dulled much of the buzz from the pregame ceremony retiring franchise-best player Evan Longoria’s No. 3, and an announced crowd of 24,297 that was second largest of the season at Tropicana Field.
Lefty Ian Seymour, who’d won his previous three starts and looked good in doing so, had a rough day, getting knocked out in the fourth inning.
The six runs he allowed — five earned — were more than his previous three outings combined. Another way to look at it is that he got 10 outs and allowed 10 men to reach — six hits, three walks and a hit batter.
Seattle took a 3-0 lead against Seymour (6-2) in the second on Victor Robles’ bases-loaded sacrifice fly and J.P. Crawford’s two-out, two-run double.
Weston Wilson hit a solo homer — his first as a Mariner and second of the season — with one out in the fourth. Seymour left with two outs and two on and former Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena greeted Cole Sulser with his 11th homer to cap the four-run inning for a 7-0 lead.
The Tampa Bay players who carried bats didn’t do much hitting, even with the perceived benefit of Seattle starter Emerson Hancock leaving in the second inning with a bruised hand, and the bullpen door revolving.
Hancock took a 107.2 mph one-hopper off his pitching hand on his first pitch to Yandy Diaz but recovered to throw him out at first. The right-hander stayed in the game and retired Jonathan Aranda on a flyout on his second pitch before striking out Junior Caminero.
Read more Senegal fires men’s football coach Pape Thiaw after World Cup exit
Hancock then left after issuing a two-out walk to Victor Mesa Jr. in the second on his 19th pitch. José A. Ferrer (2-1) needed one pitch to end the inning before striking out two in a scoreless third. Four relievers followed, with Andrés Muñoz pitching the ninth to close it out.
The Rays were held to two hits and shut out into the eighth, when All-Star DH Diaz led off with a single and Aranda, continuing his latest hot streak, hit a two-run homer. Aranda’s 64 RBIs are fifth most in the American League.
In what could have been perceived as a good omen, Aranda’s ball carried over the short leftfield fence similar to where Longoria’s famous Game 162 walkoff homer went in 2011.
All-Star third baseman Caminero and second baseman Richie Palacios each made errors, and there were a few other plays that were not made.
The loss kept the Rays from getting to 20 games over .500, as they dropped to 56-38, and saw their lead over the second-place Yankees cut to three games.
With five players — starters Nick Martinez and Drew Rasmussen, closer Bryan Baker, Diaz and Caminero — and a few staffers leaving after Sunday’s game on two private jets for Philadelphia, the team will reconvene Thursday night in Boston.
The Rays resume play with a split doubleheader on Friday, playing at 1:35 p.m. (to make up a May 9 rainout) and 7:10, then again on Saturday and Sunday afternoons before going to Toronto for a four-game series. They return home for series against the three other AL teams currently above .500 — the Guardians, Rangers and White Sox.
“Very pleased with the way the guys have gone about their business all season long,” Cash said before the game. “They’ve worked hard to put themselves in the position we’re in. Want to have that momentum. I feel like we’ve created some really positive momentum going into the break, and know that we have our hands full coming out of it.”
Read more The US launches more strikes on Iran as the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz escalates
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.