Rays' Struggles Continue, Get Swept by Reds 2-1 on Sunday

CINCINNATI, Ohio — When things go bad for long stretches in baseball, it's usually a little bit of everything that goes wrong. That's certainly been the case the past month for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Some days they doin't pitch well, early or late. Some nights it's the defensive. Many nights it's been the hitting — and sometimes all three.

The Rays lost to the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 on Sunday, unable to figure out long-time nemesis Brady Singer. They only had three hits all day, and their only run came on a solo home run by Taylor Walls in the eighth inning. They were swept in the series, scoring only five runs in three days.

They are now 53-53, back to .500 for the first time since May 28. They were once 11 games over .500 — but that seems like so long ago.

"This is just baseball. Everyone is going to have their ups and downs, and that's what's happening right now,'' Rays designated hitter Yandy Diaz said through interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. "When things go bad, everything goes bad. If we don't pitch, we aren't going to win games and if we don't hit, we're not going to win games either.

"I think it's inevitable that (the trade deadline) is in the back of their heads, and I think maybe we're pressing a little bit.''

After losing 7-2 and 6-2 to start the interleague series, the Rays needed to get off to a good start — but that didn't happen. TJ Friedl and Max McLain lead off the bottom of the first with hard-hit singles, and then with one out, Austin Hays hit a high-chopping grounder to shortstop for a hit. Taylor Walls ranged to his left, but couldn't make a play in time. When the ball squirted away from him a touch, Friedl scored.

"To be honest, I knew I would have to get rid of it as fast as I could,'' Walls said. "At the end of the day, it sucks that the ball nicks off my glove. I don't really know what the tell you. Hays has been busting it down the line the whole series, and I knew I would have to glove it and throw it at the same time.''

The Reds made it 2-0 when McLain scored on a Gavin Lux groundout to first — and they wouldn't score again. Starter Shane Baz deserved a lot of credit for that, getting through five innings and 100 pitches without allowing another run. And Mason Montgomery, Mason Englert and Ian Seymour all pitched perfect innings out of the bullpen.

Singer, who used to give the Rays fits when he pitched for the Kansas City Royals, went 7 1/3 innings and had eight strikeouts. Chandler Simpson led off the game with a single but was caught stealing, and Walls had the other hit, a two-out single in the fifth.

Tony Santillan got the last two outs in the eighth for Cincinnati and closer Emilio Pagan had a 1-2-3 ninth for his 22nd save, plowing through the heart of the Rays order. He struck out Diaz, got Jonathan Aranda to fly out to center and Junior Caminero to pop out to short. The 2-34 trio was a combined 0-for-11 on the day, and 5-6-7 hitters Josh Lowe, Jake Mangum and Tristan Gray were a conbined 0-for-9

"I think it's been the best that I've seen him,'' Diaz said of Singer. "He was attacking the zone and I think that's why he had good results.

The Rays went 25-9 from May 20 to June 26, which was the best record in baseball through that stretch, But now they've gone 7-18 since then, which is the worst mark in the game.

The long stretch of struggles is hard to explain.

"We're just not doing what you need to do to close out ballgames,'' Walls said. "I feel like they've had a bunch iin there where we were leading late in games and either we can add insurance runs or we can't hold on. That's just the name of the game.

"It's unfortunate, but we can probably do better. We're not far off. It's just been a coin flip late in games and I think this team is very capable of doing it. But we've got to do that sooner rather than later.''

The Rays are 10 games behind Toronto in the American League East race and they are now 3.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the wild-card race. The Texas Rangers are now ahead of them as well.

The Reds are now 56-50, and are six games over .500 for the first time since Sept. 18, 2023. They are 6.5 games out of first in the National League Central, but just one game behind the San Diego Padres in the wild-card race.

The Rays' road trip continues in New York on Monday, with the start of a four-game series with the Yankees. All-Star Drew Rasmussen is on the mound for the Rays, taking on rookie Cam Schlitter. Tampa Bay is in a stretch of 19 of 22 games on the road.

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