Rays 4, Marlins 9: A sour start to the Citrus Series

It is not often that we recap a Rays game where the story is a poor pitching performance top to bottom, but that was certainly the case on Friday night as the Rays opened up the Citrus Series down in Miami.

The Rays, who were looking to build off a solid series win in Toronto, quickly fell behind in the bottom of the first inning behind another shaky first inning of work from Taj Bradley. Former Rays prospect Jesus Sanchez led off the inning with a double. Ramírez followed with a double and with not outs the Marlins quickly had two runners in scoring position. With one out Bradley hit Kyle Stowers to load the bases, and Wagaman brought home Sanchez with a sacrifice fly to give the Marlins an early 1-0. Ronny Simon struck out to end the threat.

The Rays answered in the 3rd thanks to a two-out single by Chandler Simpson who quickly stole second and scored on a RBI-single by Yandy Diaz.

But, the Marlins had an answer, the following inning. Bradley issued a lead off walk to Ronny Simon and a one-out single to Derek Hill. Javier Senoja flied out to center for the second out, but Bradley proceeded to issue back-to-back two-out walks to load the bases and force a run home without the Marlins needing to make contact. Eventually they did make contact as Norby doubled to left field and cleared the bases. Just like that, the Marlins led 5-1.

The following inning the Rays were the team with the answer and quickly put up a three-spot on four hits including singles by Misner, Simpson, and Josh Lower and a double by Caballero. They cut the lead to 5-4.

Orze replaced Bradley to start the fifth and put up a scoreless frame. With the Rays still trailing 5-4 entering the bottom half of the sixth, Montgomery repacked Orze and the walk parade was on again. Sanchez and Ramírez were issued free passes to start the inning and with one out Stowers drove home Sanchez to extend the lead to 6-4. That was it and in came Connor Seabold. Wagaman welcomed the pitching change with another RBI-single and Simon collected a RBI on a sacrifice fly down the left field line. The score was 8-4. Pauley singled and Hill walked to again load the bases for the Marlins and Sanoja delivered a run scoring infield single as Brandon Lowe was unable to beat a hustling Derek Hill to the bag. Seabold finally recorded the final out of the inning but the damage was done. The score was 9-4 and that score would hold through the remainder of the game.

On the night, Rays pitchers issued seven free passes and surrendered thirteen hits. Bradley gave up five earned runs across four innings of work and Montgomery was tagged for three earned runs in just one third of an inning. Luckily, Seabold was able to finish the game and save the bullpen for tomorrow.

Bradley took the loss and his record moved to 3-3 on the year. His ERA now sits at 4.80.

If you are looking for positives, Chandler Simpson had another impactful night at the plate and on the bases. The rookie went 3-3 with a trio of singles. He scored twice, stole a base, and drove in a run.

With the loss, the Rays record dropped to 20-24 and now sit six games back of the first place Yankees in the loss column. Drew Rasmussen will take the bump tomorrow opposite Sandy Alcantara.