Rays Blow Two Leads, Lose to White Sox 11-9; Taj Bradley Sent To Durham

TAMPA, Fla. — When it comes to ranking the ugliest losses of the season, the Tampa Bay Rays play for silver medals these days. They gave up 22 runs in a loss to Baltimore last month, so Wednesday night's 11-9 loss to the Chicago White Sox has to settle for second-worst.

But it came with the biggest cost.

Starter Taj Bradley had another brutal outing. Staked with a four-run lead in the first inning, he gave it all back in the second, giving up four runs and throwing 42 pitches in the inning while only getting two outs.

He's a mess right now, and he's paying the price for those inconsistencies. Rays manager Kevin Cash announced after the game that he's being sent down to Triple-A Durham to get fixed.

"Tough decision certainly, but we feel like it's best for him to get down there right now,'' Cash said. "He's got to get to work. We've talked about the two-pitch mix that he's been rolling out there a little and I think that it's probably a better environment there to work rather than compete every pitch.

"But know that Taj Bradley is massive to our success, and we need to get him back to the form that we know he's capable of.''

The Bradley announcement was a stunner because the Rays have gotten through 103 games of the season by rolling out five starters day after day. Bradley has been a big part of that, but he's also had five games this season where he's allowed five runs or more — and four of them have come in the last six weeks. In those four rough outings, he's given up 22 runs in 12 1/3 innings.

The problem for Bradley, who is just 24 years old but has already started 69 games in the big leagues, is that he's become a two-pitch pitcher. He has a good fastball and cutter, but he's struggled with his changeup and other secondary pitches.

He can't fool hitters anymore, and they are making him pay the price.

"I'm throwing off two pitches right now, and I need to get that changeup back to where it was last year,'' Bradley said. ''I've got things to work on, and I'll take it as it is. I'm a competitor, and I'm not going to go down there with gloomy thoughts. I'm going to stay positive.

"I just feel like I got too predictable (in the second inning). I was relying on the cutter too much. People started sitting on it when I was getting away from the fastball. It's frustrating. One-word answer. Frustrating. Now I can just kind of take a breath, just knowing I can go down there and work on some stuff.''

Bradley was not alone in letting this one slip away from a Chicago team that's 37-66 on the year. After Bradley left, the bullpen kept them in the game and when they scored twice in the fifth inning and once in the sixth, the Rays had a 7-5 lead again.

But then Kevin Kelly came in to pitch the eighth inning, and he had all sorts of trouble. He gave up six runs — five earned, with one scoring on a throwing error to home by second baseman Jose Caballero — on four hits and two walks, and the White Sox jumped back ahead 11-7.

Kelly threw 27 pitches and only recorded one out. It's the fourth time he's been roughed up in the past two weeks. The Rays did rally with two runs in the eighth, but it wasn't enough.

"I wasn't throwing strikes and I just couldn't get anything in the zone. I wasn't able to finish guys off,'' Kelly said. "Anything that could have gone wrong, did. Pitches that were middle got hit, and pitches that were clear balls got taken.

"It feels terrible. We had them twice with pretty good leads and weren't able to work our way through it. A lot of other guys did their jobs tonight, and I let those guys down.''

The Rays finished this first homestand out of the break with a 3-3 record, which was very frustrating considering they were playing two last-place teams, the White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles. They took two of three from the Orioles, but lost the series to the Sox.

Chicago set a major-league record a year ago with 121 losses — and still took the season series 4-2 from the Rays. This White Sox team is filled with talented rookies, and they've been putting some things together lately, especially offensively.

The White Sox are 5-1 in the second half and have scored 50 runs in the first six games after the All-Star break. They'll play again in Chicago in September.

"Yeah, we've got to find a way to start winning more series and get on a more consistent run,'' Cash said. "I felt good that we hung in there, and had full confidence that we would be able to hold (that second lead), but we just weren't able to do it.''

The Rays are off on Thursday, and then start a three-game series in Cincinnati on Friday. From there they go to New York for four games with the Yankees. The Rays play 19 of their next 22 games on the road.