LOS ANGELES, Cal. (WWSB) – It was one week ago when the Rays were riding high in Tropicana Field, off a freshly-squeezed sweep of their American League divisional rival Red Sox, and shifting their focus out west for back-to-back road series in Southern California.
Tampa Bay left for the west coast tied with the New York Yankees atop of the AL East. Entering Wednesday’s matchup with the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the Rays were 2.5 games behind their northern rivals in the division.
It’s been a wild ride for the Rays out west. Tampa Bay started their trip in Anaheim against the Angels on Friday night. They recorded back-to-back losses on Friday and Saturday, before an 8-3 win on Sunday to avoid the sweep in that series.
On Wednesday, Tampa Bay was in a similar predicament against the Dodgers. The team suffered back-to-back losses to open the series on Monday and Tuesday, including a 1-0 loss on Tuesday night, thanks to a solo home run from Shohei Ohtani in the sixth inning against Drew Rasmussen.
Just last week, Rasmussen notched a career-best 13 strikeouts through seven innings against the Red Sox. He had one costly pitch against Ohtani that ended up deciding Tuesday’s contest. Aside from that, Rays’ Manager Kevin Cash tells us that Rasmussen has been stellar in recent outings.
“He was pretty outstanding,” Cash said of his starting pitcher.
“He was really outstanding. You know, Shohei, I think he had gotten him on a cutter earlier in the game, and ‘Ras’ was trying to get ahead, 0-0 right there in the seventh inning or sixth inning, whatever it was, and Shohei was ready for it. But I couldn’t be more impressed with the way Ras went about it,” he added.
On Wednesday, the Rays took on the Dodgers in the final game of their series and the Tampa Bay road trip before heading back home.
Los Angeles went up 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning with RBI singles from Alex Call and Alex Freeland. The Rays answered in a major way with a four-run fifth inning to take the 4-2 lead.
The Dodgers’ Kyle Tucker drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the fifth draw back within one run. Then in the bottom of the sixth inning, LA’s Freddie Freeman hit a two-run home run to centerfield, giving the Dodgers a 5-4 edge.
The Rays made things interesting in the top of the ninth inning, loading the bases with two outs for Cedric Mullins. The Rays’ center fielder struck out swinging on a pitch from the Dodgers’ Alex Vesia to end the game.
Los Angeles got the sweep of Tampa Bay, and the Rays lost five-of-six out west. They now will head back east and prepare for a home series with the Washington Nationals starting on Friday night. Game time at Tropicana Field is set for 7:10 p.m. on Friday.
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