Today, the Marlins played a sort of game that felt familiar. Their pitching, from starter to bullpen, was outstanding. Their defense possibly robbed Cedric Mullins of a home run and was sharp across the board.
They ran the bases well, making just one mistake (Heriberto Hernandez was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single to a double) but otherwise stole four bases, including a double steal that led to two runs.
I realized, this style of play felt familiar for a reason: this had been the way the Rays were playing until about a month ago.
But now that is gone. They have lost their good luck but also lost some of their basic ability to play clean baseball.
Griffin Jax started and pitched five shutout innings, bouncing back after his last (four inning, six run) start. And the Rays got on the board early as well, piecing together a hit, a stolen base, and an RBI single for a 1-0 lead. Things were looking up!
But their offense, after that, was AWOL. They scored just one run on six singles, and managed to lose two runners who were caught stealing.
And their relievers struggled to avoid walking people (Rays pitchers gave up six walks altogether), with several of the batters they walked ultimately scoring.
Catcher Hunter Feduccia had an especially terrible day. He blew the Rays two ball/strike challenges early on. Now, I have been frustrated in the past when the Rays DON’T use their challenges — you can’t save them up for a rainy day! But if you have lost your first challenge and it’s not even the fifth inning I would be very very cautious about using another.
But his biggest error? Following that double steal, with Miami runners on second and third base, Joe Mack hit a weak grounder that was fielded by Taylor Walls. Walls fired to Feduccia and the throw was in time to get the runner out….but Feduccia muffed the catch, the ball bounced away, and not just run but two runners scored. Was it a difficult throw to corral? Sure. Should he have held on to it? Yes! Here’s the video, what do y’all think?
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The Rays continue to disappoint on both sides of the ball, although at least in this series we got some decent starting pitching. Now it’s up to Boston, and it would be really nice to win that series and NOT give the Red Sox any glimmer of hope.
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