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Archer, Rays fall to Rangers

 
ST. PETERSBURG, FL - MAY 7: Chris Archer #22 of the Tampa Bay Rays hands the ball over to Kevin Cash #16 of the Tampa Bay Rays as he leaves the game in the fourth inning against the Texas Rangers on May 7, 2015 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Cliff McBride/Getty Images) 538578829
ST. PETERSBURG, FL - MAY 7: Chris Archer #22 of the Tampa Bay Rays hands the ball over to Kevin Cash #16 of the Tampa Bay Rays as he leaves the game in the fourth inning against the Texas Rangers on May 7, 2015 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Cliff McBride/Getty Images) 538578829
Published May 8, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays typically have good reason to get excited about a Chris Archer start, given the energy and dominating stuff he usually brings to the mound.

But Archer had an off night — more off than Lightning goalie Ben Bishop — and made what was already a bad Thursday worse in a 5-4 loss to the Rangers.

"Just a frustrating night," Archer said.

Start with a post 3:30 a.m arrival from Boston. A handful of players losing the battle with a flu bug, Evan Longoria enough that he was scratched from the lineup, ending the majors' longest active streak of games played at 270. The uninspiring atmosphere of a gathering of just 8,701, lowest at the Trop since 2007.

And then Archer put them in a big early hole, allowing four runs in a messy, 44-pitch second inning that included two bases-loaded walks, and failing to make it through the fourth while throwing 92 pitches. The Rays couldn't quite get out of the hole and dropped to 15-14.

"The biggest (issue) is I couldn't make pitches when I needed to," Archer said. "The one right behind that is I wasn't in the zone enough. If you're not in the zone, it doesn't matter how good your stuff is. They'll lay off and run your pitch count up, and that's what happened."

As bad as the second inning was, the Rays could have been out of it except for a bad bounce.

There were two on and two outs when Archer bounced a 2-and-2 slider to Roughned Odor that hit the dirt then catcher Bobby Wilson's left wrist, but the ball caromed away enough for Odor to smartly hustle down the line, allowing the rally to continue with the bases loaded.

"I feel bad about it, obviously," Wilson said. "It not one of those situations where you're being lazy. I got to the right position, it was just one of those short ones that happens in this game."

As much as that seemed the turning point, both Archer and manager Kevin Cash said there was more to it, especially as Archer then walked No. 9 batter, .160-hitting rookie Delino DeShields (son of the former big-leaguer), to force in one run and Shin-Soo Choo for another. A single by Elvis Andrus and an off-target throw by centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier made it 4-0.

"Arch is definitely capable of making pitches after that, and he generally does," he said. "And he just didn't do that tonight."

Archer noted that the Texas hitters were laying off his slider unless it was in the zone, and Cash had a similar observation and suggested Archer needed to adjust.

Texas built the lead to 5-0 before the Rays came back, getting three in the fifth off Texas starter Nick Martinez, the Miami native who came in ranked second in the American League with a 0.84 ERA, and getting to within one on a Kiermaier homer in the eighth.

"I like the way the guys bounced back," Cash said. "You get down 4-0, 5-0 it's easy to just kind of cash it in, but that's not what we do. And its impressive to sit there and watch how we piece it together."

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Contact Marc Topkin at mtopkin@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Rays.