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Orioles 4, Rays 2: Bullpen wastes Karns' sharp, short start (w/video)

 
Manny Machado slides past Rays catcher Rene Rivera to score on Rey Navarro’s single in the sixth inning, pulling the Orioles within 2-1.
Manny Machado slides past Rays catcher Rene Rivera to score on Rey Navarro’s single in the sixth inning, pulling the Orioles within 2-1.
Published May 4, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG — As Kevin Cash has managed through a tumultuous, injury-marred first month, he has shown a tendency to rely heavily on the Rays' bullpen and has usually been rewarded.

But that faith and confidence have made him a little greedy, as he showed Sunday in pulling starter Nathan Karns after five shutout innings and only 66 pitches. It cost the Rays, as relievers Brandon Gomes, Steve Geltz and Kevin Jepsen combined to turn a two-run lead into a 4-2 loss to the Orioles.

"We've asked a lot of those guys, and they've been outstanding," Cash said. "(Sunday), maybe we did it an inning too soon; I did it an inning too soon. But it still doesn't change the fact that we were going to those guys eventually."

True, but there is a different dynamic in getting 12 outs rather than nine, so the game may have played out differently had he let Karns — who had allowed only two hits and one walk — to work through at least the sixth.

"At that point, I felt that he'd given exactly what we needed," Cash said. "If there was a chance that I jumped the gun an inning earlier, that's on me. That goes to so much confidence with 'Gomer' with 'Geltzy' and stacking all the way through."

Rays first baseman James Loney said he was definitely surprised to see Karns get such an early hook, and other players indicated they were, too.

Karns said he was and he wasn't: "It was a good ball game, and they felt like they needed to make a move, so I trust them. They're in charge of making those calls, and I'm just there to do my job and pitch."

Though Karns had posted five zeroes, he was not necessarily dominating, and there appeared to be two reasons for the move: the Rays not expanding their lead and data they had about the difficulties for a starter to go through a lineup for the third time, as Karns was about to.

"This was a plan or approach we had coming in this game," Karns said. "That's a call they made, and I'm cool with it. More of a philosophy approach. We had some numbers showing the third time around, hitters usually do better against starters, so I'm assuming that was something that played into it."

Cash said it did, to a degree. "We factor in a lot of things, and turning over this (Orioles) lineup is extremely difficult. There are some good hitters in this lineup," he said. "Hopefully (Karns) looks at it as a confidence boost because he did everything that was asked of him. We can probably sit and second-guess a lot of situations, and again, that's on me. Could he have gone back out? Without a doubt he could have."

There is little margin for error with the way the Rays' offense is struggling, scoring only four runs for the weekend and 10 over the past six games.

Rookie outfielder Steven Souza Jr. is hitless in his past 17 at-bats — striking out four times Friday and Sunday — and said the struggles "are getting in my head a little bit." Catcher Rene Rivera is 0-for-his-past-13 and hitting .135 overall.

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When the Rays got the tying run to the plate in the eighth, Evan Longoria struck out and Orioles closer Zach Britton got pinch-hitter Jake Elmore to ground out. When they did so again in the ninth, Tim Beckham, Asdrubal Cabrera (pinch-hitting for Kevin Kiermaier despite a 1-for-21 mark versus lefties) and Rivera went down in order.

That made it all the worse when the bullpen blew it before 16,652 to wrap the weekend series in which the Rays played as the visitors at Tropicana Field in games that were relocated from Baltimore due to civil unrest.

The Orioles got one run in the sixth, combining a Manny Machado bunt, an infield single off Gomes and a two-out pinch-hit single by Rey Navarro off Geltz to trail 2-1. They got three in the seventh, a Travis Snider leadoff single and a two-out walk to Machado ending Geltz's day, then a Jimmy Paredes RBI double and a two-run Adam Jones single off Jepsen ruining the Rays' night as they headed to Boston to resume their road trip.

"It just felt like it was an uphill battle to just keep them off the bases," Jepsen said. "Obviously not ideal, and these have been the games where we've been able to come in and get outs and stop it and walk away with the win. For that not to happen (Sunday) is unfortunate."

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