Shut out again by the Astros, the Rays are streaking the wrong way
In a young season that has been measured in streaks, this is one the Rays want to avoid. The Astros shut them out 1-0 on Wednesday at Tropicana Field, a second straight scoreless night for the Rays.
The Rays (20-5) have been shut out in back-to-back games only twice in the last six years. The only other time was Sept. 19-20 of last season and it also came at the hands of the defending World Series champion Astros. The Rays, who went into the game leading the majors in runs scored, have not scored a run in 19 straight innings.
It came on the heels of winning a modern-era, record-tying 13 straight games to start a season and 14 straight games at home to open a season. They also scored a home run in each of their first 22 games, another record.
So what do the Rays do now that they’ve hit their first real offensive skid of the season?
“Just not change a thing,” said right fielder Manuel Margot, via interpreter Manny Navarro. “Just keep on doing what we’ve normally been doing. The pitchers are doing a great job. Everyone has the right to make their own adjustment, whatever is necessary.”
Margot accounted for all the Rays’ hits Wednesday night, a season-low two singles for Tampa Bay. It was the fewest hits the Rays have had since Aug. 2, 2022, at Toronto.
“To go out there and score nine every night, it’s just not gonna happen. So it’s a long season; you’re gonna have patches where you don’t score any runs,” second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “And we just had this two-game skid where, hopefully, tomorrow we rebound and are back to scoring five or six like we’re used to.”
They ran into two dominant pitchers on back-to-back nights. After Luis Garcia led Houston in a shutout on Tuesday night, Hunter Brown was even more dominating Wednesday.
Brown threw seven scoreless innings, scattering two hits and working around two walks while striking out eight. The Rays managed to get one fly ball off Brown, who has now thrown 50.2 innings in the big leagues without having given up a home run.
“He did a really good job,” Margot said. “That cutter was looking really good and it looked like he was located his pitches really well tonight.”
The Rays had some pretty good pitching themselves.
Josh Flemming gave them six scoreless innings as the “bulk” guy after Calvin Faucher. Fleming worked around four hits and a walk, striking out two. Faucher allowed the Astros’ lone run. He went two innings as the opener, gave up a hit, walked two and struck out one.
Faucher, making his third straight “start,” gave up one run on one hit and two walks. In the first, Jeremy Pena hit a one-out single before Faucher walked Plant High alum Kyle Tucker. Wander Franco bobbled Alex Bregman’s soft grounder, allowing the run to score.
The Rays’ pitching has been a constant, but the offense was a concern coming into the season.
After a 2022 season in which run scoring was difficult (the Rays finished 21st among 30 teams), their early offense was reassuring. The team’s front office had banked on the healthy return of players like Lowe to power this offense and it looked like their gamble was paying off.
Rays manager Kevin Cash chalked up the recent mini-slump to the Astros’ pitchers, not the Rays’ approach. Lowe, who worked a walk Wednesday night, agreed.
“We don’t worry about it,” Lowe said. “… All right, we lost. This sucks. Let’s get on the plane, get into Chicago and take care of this the first day (against the White Sox).”
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