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Sloppy all around, Rays fall to Red Sox

 
BOSTON, MA - JULY 31:  Logan Forsythe #11 of the Tampa Bay Rays congratulates Mikie Mahtook #27 after he scored a run against the Boston Red Sox  during the second inning at Fenway Park on July 31, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts.  (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) 538587721
BOSTON, MA - JULY 31: Logan Forsythe #11 of the Tampa Bay Rays congratulates Mikie Mahtook #27 after he scored a run against the Boston Red Sox during the second inning at Fenway Park on July 31, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) 538587721
Published Aug. 1, 2015

BOSTON — If the Rays keep playing like this, arguing over whether they should have done more at the trade deadline won't be worth a spit.

Another sloppy and mistake-filled performance Friday resulted in a 7-5 loss to the last-place Red Sox as the Rays finished July with a majors-worst 9-16 record and dropped to 51-53 overall.

"We need to get back to playing our style of baseball," manager Kevin Cash said. "Without a doubt, we need to go, we need to go now, and we need to play clean baseball while we're doing it."

Friday was anything but, as they made three infield errors, a couple mental mistakes and a few other misplays, twice gave up leads, and wasted their usual slew of opportunities, going 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position while leaving 13 runners on base.

Even though the Red Sox took the lead for good in the seventh, when David Ortiz won an 11-pitch battle against Jake McGee with a two-out walk and Mike Napoli followed with a homer, the game may have been decided in the first.

The Rays loaded the bases but got only one run, and that because shortstop Xander Bogaerts didn't convert a likely inning-ending double play.

Then first baseman Logan Forsythe and second baseman Tim Beckham made errors that led to the Red Sox scoring three unearned runs off starter Erasmo Ramirez.

"This game appeared to be kind of decided the way it was going early on," Cash said. "We're not good enough, and I don't know of many teams that are, to give up extra outs, and that's what we did tonight."

With some help from the also-sloppy Red Sox, the Rays tied it in the third. And after the Sox went ahead in the fifth — when Beckham made more of a mental error by failing to get the lead runner at second — the Rays went back ahead in the seventh, on a two-run pinch-hit double by John Jaso.

That got the Rays to the seventh with the lead. Cash summoned McGee to face the top of the order. It was a move he said he would have done anyway — "without a doubt" — even if the Rays hadn't traded Kevin Jepsen earlier in the day, as two of the first three Sox due up were lefties.

McGee got two quick outs but then lost a terrific 11-pitch battle in walking Ortiz, who was 2-for-8 against him previously. "I was making a lot of good pitches, throwing inside, outside, up and way, and some curveballs," McGee said. "It was just who was going to win the battle at the end."

Said Ortiz: "That's just me, man, you know? I always try to do my best.''

McGee started with two strikes against Napoli but couldn't put him away to end the inning, and Napoli launched a neck-high fastball that landed just atop the Green Monster.

Contact Marc Topkin at mtopkin@tampabay.com.