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Rays struggle on mound in loss to Marlins

 
Rays reliever Erasmo Ramirez gets a visit from catcher Rene Rivera.
Rays reliever Erasmo Ramirez gets a visit from catcher Rene Rivera.
Published April 11, 2015

MIAMI — The chatter throughout the day was about the Rays' unconventional, multi-purposed, somewhat creative and slightly controversial plan to start Friday's game with reliever Steve Geltz on the mound.

But by the end, a 10-9 10-inning walkoff loss to the Marlins, there was so much more to talk about.

Obviously the ending, as Christian Yelich singled off Brad Boxberger, the eighth Rays pitcher, to score Dee Gordon and give the Marlins their first win.

But, even more so, how the Rays (1-3) got to that point.

First in erasing the 8-1 hole Erasmo Ramirez, one of the starters who worked in relief of Geltz, put them in with a messy debut performance, by scoring seven in the seventh.

Then after giving up the lead in the eighth, by rallying again off Marlins closer Steve Cishek to tie it in the ninth.

"Incredible effort," said Rays manager Kevin Cash, who had quite the busy first game under National League rules. "I can not say enough about the guys, what they did to bounce back and the pitchers to keep giving us chances."

The Geltz part of the plan worked well, as in his first start since Wilson (N.Y.) High in 2005 he allowed one run — due in part to a poorly executed rundown play — over two innings, sticking to his pledge to stay on a normal routine, warming up in the bullpen and going straight to the mound.

Starting him seemed like a vote of no-confidence in both Ramirez and Matt Andriese, as either would have been a simpler solution and a more experienced option. Ramirez has made 35 career big-league starts for the Mariners, and Andriese, though yet to pitch in the majors until his one-inning debut Friday, was one of their top starters last season at Triple A.

But the Rays insisted that was not the case, and that they had their reasons for going with the plan they hatched.

Primarily to limit the number of innings Ramirez and Andriese worked because they are looking to bring them back on short rest to pitch again Tuesday, and that in holding them back for later innings they could find an edge in being able to pinch-hit for their "starter" as soon as the second or third.

"You can go back and look at the way things played out and it's easy to second-guess some situations but I think we felt pretty good about how it did end up playing out, even with that one six-run inning," Cash said.

Ramirez, acquired in trade March 31, was the problem. He put the first three on in the third, escaping with only one run allowed by getting a double play grounder, then allowing six runs in an ugly fourth.

"I was falling way behind and I was maybe trying to do too much," Ramirez said. "I need to focus on throwing strikes and making them swing. I woke up too late (in the game) to make an adjustment."

Down 8-1 in the seventh, the Rays rallied with help, scoring three on bases loaded walks, three more on a bases-clearing pinch double by David DeJesus off the top of the rightfield wall, and then on an RBI single by Asdrubal Cabrera.

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The Marlins went back ahead in the eighth on a two-out, 0-and-2 RBI single by Giancarlo Stanton, whom Cash allowed Ernesto Frieri to pitch to with first base open as long as he got ahead.

And then the Rays came back again in the ninth as Brandon Guyer doubled, went to third on Bobby Wilson's soft single and scored when Cabrera hustled to beat out the back end of a potential game-ending double play.

"I know it's a loss at the end of the day," Guyer said, "but you see the battle in the team and that is something we can build off later in the year."

Cash had an eventful night, managing his fourth big-league game under National League rules, with a reliever starting and a sub-dotted lineup card, making two double-switches and kind of a third, emptying his bench, using every reliever but Kevin Jepsen and having Sunday starter Nathan Karns put his spikes on just in case.

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