There’s No Crying In Baseball: Phillies lose to the Rays 6-2
The Tampa Bay Rays have won 15 of their past 16 games. They swept the Phillies in a two-game series on Saturday and Sunday. They have the best record in the American League, despite a low payroll and almost zero fans in St. Petersburg.
The Phillies are three games below .500 (25-28) for the first time this season.
Alec Bohm overran a catchable popup in foul territory. Whether it was the white roof of the rundown Tropicana field or just an error on Bohm, it should have been the innings first out. Following the miss, Mike Zunio hit a two-out, two-run home run to left field off Zach Eflin to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead.
The Phillies, now down 2-0 saw Eflin’s pitch count quickly climb to 86 pitches through four innings. It was the first start out of 11 this season that Eflin did not pitch six innings. The Phillies were down 3-0. Offense didn’t exist. Alec Bohm was crying on the shoulder of Didi Gregorius in the dugout. It was an embarrassing mess from the Phillies and continued to get worse as the game went on.
Ranger Suarez came in in relief and allowed a double to Ji-Man Choi to score Arozarena, giving the Rays a 4-0 lead. Joe Girardi made yet another bone headed move in the seventh inning, pulling Connor Brogdon who just struck out Lowe and Choi, in favor of Archie Bradley to face Meadows. Bradley walked Meadows before allowing a single to Joey Wendle.
The Phillies defense put the game out of reach. Brad Miller airmailed a throw home that got past Rhys Hoskins and Archie Bradley, who instead of going to back up home plate, hung his head after allowing a hit. The ball got behind Knapp, and allowed another run to score, giving the Rays a 6-2 lead.
The Phillies have the fifth-highest payroll in Major League Baseball at $183 million. The Rays are 26th at $63 million. Tampa Bay wins baseball games. The Phillies do not. While everyone across the United States want to go to Florida, the Phillies desperately need to get out of that state. Nothing good ever happens for the Phillies when they are in Florida.
Vince Velasquez will be on the mound today against the Reds at 2:10pm for some late afternoon Memorial Day baseball.
Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY
[…] was on full display during their weekend series against the Tampa Bay Rays. It ended yesterday with Zach Eflin having his worst outing of the season as the Phillies lost to the Rays […]