When scoring on the road in the first inning this season, the Tampa Bay Rays were 20-3. After Wednesday's game, in which the Rays scored two in the first inning at Petco Park in San Diego on a Tommy Pham blast off the warehouse in left field, they are now 20-4, after a lackluster 7-2 loss to the Padres.
The loss ended the Rays' team record nine-game road winning streak. They finished this west-coast swing with a 5-1 record.
Those first-inning runs were the only real offense the Rays could muster off Padres starting pitcher Cal Quantrill, who, with help from four other San Diego pitchers, kept the Rays' bats quiet for the final eight innings. Quantrill picked up his sixth win.
Conversely, Jalen Beeks, starting for the Rays, started off strong, retiring the first five hitters he faced. But with two outs in the second, he collpased, alowing the Padres to tie the score at two following an RBI single by Quantrill, his counterpart, who had not had a hit nor an RBI in his major-league career up until that at-bat.
Then after a 1-2-3 third inning, Beeks labored through the fourth, allowing the Padres to take the lead for good. Eric Hosmer led off the inning with an infield single, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Francisco Mejia then blooped a single to short center, causing Hosmer to hesitate and stay at third. Then, Luis Urias delivered the game-winning runs with a double down the left-field line.
Beeks allowed five runs on eight hits in his five innings of work, the last run he allowed coming across in the fifth on a solo homer by Hosmer, his 18th. Beeks' record dropped to 5-2.
San Diego added solo runs in the seventh and eighth to pull away.
The Rays dropped to 71-51, and with yet another win by the Yankees Wednesday over the Baltimore Orioles, they are 10 back in the AL East standings. Additionally, the Oakland A's defeated the San Francisco Giants 9-5, gaining a game on the Rays for the last wild card spot. The Rays' lead over the A's is now two games.
*Pham's home run was his 17th.
*Eric Sogard's on-base streak reached 25 games with a leadoff walk in the first inning.
*After an off day Thursday, it'll be Charlie Morton (13-4 2.90 ERA) starting for the Rays Friday as they return home to face Daniel Norris (3-10 4.94 ERA) and the Detroit Tigers. Game time is 7:10 p.m.
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