ST. PETERSBURG (WDAE) -- Brendan McKay suffered his first loss at the Major League level, allowing six runs and failing to get out of the fourth inning, as the Tampa Bay Rays dropped their fourth straight game, opening their homestand with a 9-2 defeat at the hands of the Chicago White Sox Friday at Tropicana Field.
The Rays looked like a team that got in from a doubleheader on the road at 6:00 in the morning, as Chicago struck in the top of the first inning with a double by Leury Garcia, who scored when Jose Abreu's ground ball was booted by Mike Brosseau for an error.
Tampa Bay ralled in the bottom of the first to tie the game on a Ji-Man Choi base hit that scored Austin Meadows, but the White Sox struck for three more runs in the top of the second, with Garcia doubling with two out on a flare that fell between Brosseau and Meadows in shallow right, allowing Jon Jay and Adam Engel, who each singled, to come around and score to make it 3-1, and Yoan Moncada following with a double to plate Garcia.
Tampa Bay got one run back in the bottom of the second on back-to-back two-out doubles by Joey Wendle and Brosseau, but the Rays would get no closer, and Chicago extended the lead with two runs in the fourth thanks to a solo home run by Yolmer Sanchez and a run-scoring single by Moncada that ended McKay's evening.
Engel's RBI triple off Colin Poche an inning later made it 7-2, and when the left-hander uncorked a wild pitch, it allowed the White Sox centerfielder to make it 8-2. Sanchez set the score with an RBI double off Ryne Stanek in the top of the ninth.
The loss drops Tampa Bay to nine games behind New York for the lead in the American League East.
SATURDAY'S MATCHUP
Tampa Bay Rays (56-44) vs. Chicago White Sox (43-51), 6:10 pm first pitch, with coverage on WDAE beginning at 5:00 with The Inside Pitch.
Rays starter: LHP Ryan Yarbrough (8-3, 4.26 ERA)
White Sox starter: RHP Lucas Giolito (11-4, 3.23 ERA)