ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — At the start, Tuesday’s game looked a lot like Taj Bradley’s last outing on Thursday against the Mets.
He got in some trouble right away, limited the damage to one run and settled in. Thursday, that was good enough to get him through five solid innings.
Tuesday, not so much.
The rookie right-hander got knocked around by the Jays and knocked out after four innings, allowing the first four runs in a 20-1 loss that was the Rays’ most lopsided ever.
The 19-run margin of defeat eclipsed the previous franchise record, a 22-4 loss to the Red Sox on July 23, 2002.
Reliever Zack Burdi, called up Monday with Jake Diekman on the paternity list, made a bigger mess in the fifth, allowing six runs on a combination of misplaced pitches.
He allowed five hits and a walk, and twice threw wild pitches that allowed a run to score. Add in a throwing error by third baseman Isaac Paredes, who later homered for the only Tampa Bay run, and it was the second-largest inning by a Rays opponent this season. The only one worse was the seven the White Sox scored in the ninth in the April 30 fiasco, a 12-9 Tampa Bay defeat.
To save the bullpen, the Rays used outfielder/first baseman Luke Raley on the mound for the final two innings. He allowed one run in the eighth, while also striking out Vlad Guerrero Jr. But that didn’t work out too well in the ninth, as Raley loaded the bases and Guerrero got revenge with a grand slam.
Catcher Christian Bethancourt, who warmed up earlier, came out of the dugout to get the final out.
Bradley was pitching on a standard four days’ rest for the first time in the majors, which may be why he was limited to 80 pitches over the four innings. Rays manager Kevin Cash said they didn’t think that was much of an issue going into the game.
“I don’t think that’s too big of a concern of his,’’ he said.
