The Rays front office is obviously concerned with the ineffectiveness of the bullpen because they went out today and traded a draft pick to the Orioles for righty Bryan Baker.
And in his first outing as a Ray, Baker promptly gave up three runs and the lead.
Cue the “he fits right in” jokes.
The three run inning and the loss are really a shame because this would have been a nice win.
It would have been nice to get a game up on a division and Wild Card rival.
It would have been nice to reward a pretty good starting performance from Taj Bradley, who gave up just one run in 6 innings.
To my eye, Bradley wasn’t very sharp. He walked three, but also seemed to fall behind on a lot of Red Sox batters. Nonetheless, they weren’t able to take advantage. Other than in the second inning, where they scored a run on two hits, hitters mostly managed weak contact off of him. It’s great to see him have success and build his confidence.
On offense, the Rays certainly should have been able to do more against Walker Buehler and his 6.12 ERA. They had seven hits and three walks; their runs came on Ha-Seong Kim’s first home run as a Ray, as well as Junior’s 23rd home run of the season.
So three runs was a little pathetic but still, most bullpens can work with a two-run lead for a couple of innings.
Baker was clearly shaky from his first pitch, and he walked the first two batters he faced, followed by two hits to score three runs, giving the Red Sox a 4-3 lead that they did not relinquish, as apparently their relievers can keep runs from scoring.
I know Kevin Cash, and perhaps all managers, likes to throw new guys into games quickly, but I wonder (with the advantage of hindsight) whether that was the best strategy today. Baker wasn’t a guy called up from Durham, thrilled to be there how ever many planes he had to catch.
Baker woke up and went to the ballpark for his team’s double header, and learned there he had been traded. Weather issues apparently delayed his trip to Boston. So he gets to Fenway Park having spent the day traveling, and also probably making mental lists of how he’s going to move his stuff, find a place to live, get his car to Tampa, etc.
Maybe then give him a day to meet his teammates and let him pitch tomorrow?
At any rate, getting slim leads and losing them late in the game is so much of a pattern for this team that it just seems like the new normal.
