ARLINGTON, Texas — The Rays keep waiting and waiting for the hitters they have to get back to producing runs as they did earlier in the season.
They may have to start considering other options.
The struggles continued Tuesday night in a 5-3 loss to the Rangers.
The Rays were held to six hits, went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on, getting two of the runs on solo homers.
The loss was their third straight, 10th in 13 games and 18th in 30, dropping their American League-best record to 60-38. Since a 29-7 start (through May 8), they have gone 31-31.
They did, however, maintain their one-game East lead as the Orioles, who come to Tropicana Field for a four-game series starting Thursday, lost again.
The Rays were shut down and shut out over six innings by starter Nathan Eovaldi. They got one in the seventh, when Josh Lowe singled and Francisco Mejia lined a double to left. And they got two in the eighth on homers by Randy Arozarena and Brandon Lowe.
They had a few chances to cobble together a rally, but failed to get the hit they needed. In the second, when they had the bases loaded with two outs, Mejia grounded out. In the sixth, with two on and two out, Brandon Lowe grounded out. And in the seventh, with two on and one out, Wander Franco grounded into an inning-ending double play.
As if the Rays’ offensive struggles weren’t frustrating enough — in their last 18 losses, for example, they have scored only 53 runs (an average of a paltry 2.94) — they wasted a strong start by rookie Taj Bradley, who allowed two runs over his five-plus innings.
Reliever Javy Guerra made a mess in the seventh, allowing a leadoff walk to No. 9 hitter Leody Taveras, then a single to Marcus Semien that struck his foot and a three-run homer to Corey Seager.
Bradley, recharged and refreshed with an All-Star break trip to his Atlanta-area home, and multiple servings of his mom’s burritos, allowed five hits and two runs; one came on a solo homer by Semien in the third, the other scoring after he left in the sixth, having allowed a leadoff single and a walk. Bradley walked two and struck out nine, throwing a career-high 95 pitches.
Though Bradley’s numbers over his previous three starts looked rough — 0-2, 11.68, with 16 runs, 22 hits and four walks allowed over 12 1/3 innings — manager Kevin Cash insisted before Tuesday’s game that he hadn’t pitched that badly.
“Taj’s stuff has been good every single start,” Cash said. “I want to see him ... make his own good fortune, but have a little bit of luck. I feel like he’s been a little unlucky for us. And eventually you’ve got to change that on your own. But really encouraged with the way he’s thrown the ball and the way his stuff has played.”
