As Rays keep losing games and talking turnaround, long trip will be key

TAMPA — As the defeats pile up and the gap from a playoff spot widens, the Rays keep insisting they will shake their extended struggles and return to the winning baseball they played for most of May and June.

By the time they next play at Steinbrenner Field, we should know if they meant it.

The Rays trudged out of the clubhouse Sunday after a 3-0 defeat to the Dodgers that was their ninth loss in 11 games, 15th in 20 and majors-most 23rd in 32.

They won’t return until Aug. 19, faced with the rigorous challenge of a 12-game, 14-day West Coast trip — their longest since 2005 — that starts Monday in Anaheim, California, and well could determine their fate.

As frustrating as Sunday’s loss was — especially ending with the bases-loaded and Yandy Diaz, one of their best hitters, grounding out — they maintained some sense of optimism.

“There’s not a doubt in my mind that we’re going to turn this thing around and make a run,” said rookie outfielder Jake Mangum. “We just keep freaking fighting, man. Eventually, we keep fighting, things are going to go our way. We have too much talent in this clubhouse not to.

“I wholeheartedly believe that we’re going to do it. We’re going to maintain faith. We’re not going to get down. It’s really easy in this game to get down, but we’re not going to do that. We’re going to keep fighting like hell, and we’re going to do something.”

They are going to have to do a lot.

At 55-58, the Rays are 10 games off the American League East lead. They are five games, plus four teams, from the final wild-card spot currently held by the Mariners, who they face next weekend. Their playoff chances, at 78.7% on June 26 per fangraphs.com, are down to 7.8%.

Though the Rays were shut out in two of the three games against the Dodgers — marking the 10th time they’ve been blanked, second most in the majors — they tried to find some solace in Sunday’s near-misses.

In the fifth, they had runners on first and third with out out against Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but Diaz popped out and Brandon Lowe struck out swinging.

In the ninth, they had two on with one out as Ha-Seong Kim drew a leadoff walk — their first free pass since the 10th inning Wednesday — and Mangum singled, sending Kim to third.

With Chandler Simpson (left index finger sprain) apparently not available, 29-year-old rookie Tristan Gray pinch-hit for Jonny DeLuca against Blake Treinen and struck out. Taylor Walls extended the inning with a good at-bat, working his way from 0-1 and 1-2 to a seven-pitch walk to load the bases.

Ben Casparius came in to end it, getting Diaz to ground out.

“We’ve got to find ways to, when we get guys on the corners like that, to somehow get runs, scratch, get one across, maybe get two,” manager Kevin Cash said.

Lowe said the Rays have to stay at it.

“Just keep going the way we’re going. … Obviously didn’t get the job done (Sunday). There’s not lack of effort. No one’s up there not trying to get the job done,” he said. “Just didn’t go the way that we wanted it to go (Sunday). We’ll flush those at-bats and be ready to get the job done (Monday).”

What the Rays seem to need is the kind of game where a lot of things go right and they can build off it.

There have been a couple times in that stretch where it looked like they might have something to build on and didn’t. Since the end of their majors-best 25-9 run on June 26, they have won back-to-back games only once.

Saturday’s 4-0 win over the Dodgers looked like it could have been one of those restarting points, and the five shutout innings they got from starter Joe Boyle — who gave props to new catcher Hunter Feduccia — certainly seemed to position them well for Sunday.

But reliever Mason Englert, who earned his way into higher-leverage duty with 10 straight scoreless outings, allowed single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, with costly walks part of the rallies.

Mangum admittedly was slow to charge Andy Pages’ single to left in the sixth due to odd bounces, which allowed 35-year-old Freddie Freeman to score from second ahead of a relay throw from Walls.

“I could have played that ball a little bit better,” said Mangum, who later made a leaping catch at the leftfield wall. “That’s the one play I wish I had back defensively.”

In the seventh, with Shohei Ohtani on second (after a one-out infield single) and Mookie Betts on first (after a walk), Englert thought the Dodgers might try a double steal but “didn’t act on that intuition.”

The runners did, leading the Rays to pull the infield in. Freeman then slashed a ball just beyond the reach of Lowe at first base, which Englert figured wouldn’t have happened had he held the runners better and the infield was playing back.

“One of those little mistakes that end up costing you a run that you shouldn’t make,” Englert said.

As the losses have mounted, some of the answers have gotten shorter. Asked if they needed a game where a lot went right to get them rolling again, Cash said, simply, “yes.”

For now, Lowe said, they have to keep thinking they can do it.

“When you’re in the slump that we’ve kind of been in, it’s hard to scratch and claw your way out,” he said. “But there are a lot of positives to take away from this series. I think (we) focus on those and get rid of any negative thoughts we have and go play good baseball on the West Coast.”

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As Rays keep losing games and talking turnaround, long trip will be key

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