You can point out the positive, that at least the Rays kept the other team under 10 runs and lost by less than nine, so Saturday’s 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays was actually progress from the previous two games.
You can point out the unexpected, how a fielding mistake by one of their surest-handed infielders, Joey Wendle, factored into the loss. And how a bad outing by a reliever, Matt Wisler, they felt had thrown well again wasted a strong start by rookie Shane McClanahan.
And you can point out the obvious, as the Rays lost their fifth straight game, and 12th in their past 16, and 10th in a row on the road. They fell to 47-36 and, pending AL East-leading Boston’s late result, potentially 5½ games out of first.
“Frustration is a good word,’' manager Kevin Cash said. “We are frustrated. These guys have set a pretty high bar for themselves. They expect to win.
“And on top of that they expect to be in every game. We all do. There’s been some games that we’re just not really in. Encouraging that we got the (two) runs there at the end. … But we have not played to our level that we’ve set here for quite some time.’'
And you can point out that it has been a teamwide funk, as they seem to be living a cornucopia of cliches, that if it’s not one thing it’s another, that the only breaks are bad ones, and that nothing seems to be coming easy.
“When good teams start to go sideways a little bit, I think that’s a lot of what happens,’' Cash said. “Everything gets magnified. A couple breaks that were going your way a lot are no longer there for you. There’s no finger pointing. It’s all five being pointed at all of us right now. We’re just not getting it done. But we will.’'
For a while, it looked like they might on a sunny Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y.
McClanahan was solid, supplementing his standard upper-90s fastball/slider mix more liberally with changeups and curves to get to the sixth with the score tied at 1, having allowed only a first-pitch fastball homer to George Springer in the second.
But after McClanahan allowed a one-out 117.3 mph double to Vlad Guerrero Jr. and walked Springer, Cash decided 71 pitches were enough against the threatening Jays lineup.
“He was awesome,’' Cash said of McClanahan. “He is really doing some special things on the mound for us, and he’s becoming that guy that every time he takes the ball, he’s giving us a chance to win the ballgame, and he’s doing it in dominating fashion.’'
Wisler didn’t get hit hard, but it still got ugly as five runs scored. An infield single loaded the bases. Then a slow grounder to Wendle at third became a problem as he made an off-target throw that catcher Mike Zunino couldn’t corral.
“Just didn’t execute,’' Wendle said. “I think I had more time than I thought I did. I’m not sure if I had time to take another step, but yeah, I could have probably set my feet a little bit more. I just cut the throw a little bit, and it took Z a little bit wide, and he wasn’t able to handle it.’'
An opposite-field blooper that landed just inside the leftfield line and a two-run homer by Santiago Espinal off Wisler made it 6-1, and the Rays once again came up short, outscored 42-17 over the five-game skid.
“I think it comes, more than anything, just down to execution and getting back to doing what we were doing the first half of the year and kind of what got us to the point we are at now,’' Wendle said. “It seems like things that we’re usually pretty solid at, we’re not right now. When you compound that with some of the mistakes we’ve been making and (a) lack of capitalizing on opportunities, I think that equals losses.’'
• • •
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