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Sloppy Rays blow two leads, lose to Orioles

 
Rays leftfielder Matt Joyce watches Steve Pearce’s first-inning homer fly over the wall.
Rays leftfielder Matt Joyce watches Steve Pearce’s first-inning homer fly over the wall.
Published Aug. 29, 2014

BALTIMORE — Manager Joe Maddon keeps talking about how the Rays are one of the best teams in the American League and can still battle their way into postseason.

But they are certainly not playing anything like it.

Two botched defensive plays factored heavily into Thursday's 5-4 loss as Tampa Bay continued what has been an uncharacteristically sloppy stretch at an obviously crucial time.

"I think the guys have been grinding at it so hard, and they want to do this so badly, that the mistakes are creeping in there," Maddon said. "They're more mental than physical kind of things, whether you want to talk the baserunning or the play today. … That's the unusual component, stuff that we work on, stuff that our guys are good at, we didn't do well over the last couple days.

"I don't know if it's pressing so much. I don't know how much the push, the push, the push, might be wearing them down just a little bit. We have to somehow refocus and keep our mental energy more than our physical energy right now."

They obviously don't have much time. The Rays dropped to 65-69 as they lost three of the four games with the AL East-leading Orioles they considered must-win. Of greater significance, they fell eight games back of the second AL wild-card spot with 28 to play.

Twice Thursday, the Rays went up by two runs, and twice they gave the lead away on plays involving throws from shortstop Yunel Escobar.

In the first, a throw home from Escobar glanced off catcher Jose Molina's glove, allowing a run on a double steal. And in the fifth, Escobar airmailed a throw to first on what should have been an inning-ending double play.

Making the night worse, the Rays gave up the decisive run in the seventh on a bloop single off Kirby Yates by J.J. Hardy — "a guy he's got to be able to get out," Maddon said — following a two-out double and an intentional walk.

"We kind of gave that to them," Maddon said. "That's why we're in the situation we're in."

The Rays went up 2-0 in the first, Desmond Jennings leading off with a double and coming around, Evan Longoria drilling his 17th homer. But starter Jeremy Hellickson was admittedly not sharp — "I didn't have command of much" — and the lead didn't last.

Hellickson gave up a homer to Steve Pearce, then two singles put runners on the corners, then in motion. Molina threw down as Nelson Cruz broke for second, and Maddon said Escobar did a good job running the play, though his return throw was a little high and a little wide. Molina couldn't get to it, the ball ticking off his glove as the run scored.

The Rays went ahead in the fifth and gave it back again. Hellickson loaded the bases but got major-league home run leader Nelson Cruz out on a line drive.

Maddon summoned lefty Jeff Beliveau, who got the double-play grounder he was looking for from Chris Davis. But … Escobar took Loney's throw for the lead out, then massively misfired on the throw back to Beliveau at first, allowing both runners to score.

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Maddon explained that Escobar was throwing from an awkward angle, and it appeared he never got set. But he acknowledged "that's a play we normally do make or should make."

Kind of sums up a lot of things.