Game Recap: Tampa Bay Rays fall in game two of the Spring

In game two of Spring Training Exhibition play, the Tampa Bay Rays were handed their second loss of 2019.

The story of this game comes on the mound for the Tampa Bay Rays, and it depends if you are a glass half full, or half empty kinda guy or gal as to how you will view it.

Ryan Yarbrough, the hotshot young gun that burst onto the scene in 2019, got the start for the Spring Rays. The 27 year old struggled to say the least as he was unable to get out of the first inning, only recording one out in the frame. He was charged with two earned runs, while four came around to score as he allowed three hits. After a stellar 2018 campaign that saw him hold a 3.91 ERA, and finish 5th in Rookie of the Year voting, fans are excited for the potential of year two.

However, some of the skeptics might say he is “due” to regress. After all, that is how baseball works, especially for none top of the line guys. Today’s outing did nothing to silence the critics, but it can be swept under the rug as one meaningless Spring Training start.

From there, Kevin Cash turned to Jacob Faria, who turned in an incredible 2017 before being just dreadful in 2018. Faria is hoping for a bounce back, and in his first Spring outing, he got it. Faria went 1.2 innings without giving up a hit and punching out three batters in almost two innings of perfect ball.

This stellar outing can too be swept under the rug with the same qualifiers as Yarbrough’s but it feels a lot better to fans.

Newly acquired Emilio Pagan made his first appearance on the mound as a Ray and provided the lone other bright spots for Tampa Bay on the hill. Pagan worked a clean 1-2-3 inning with a pair of strikeouts before turning the ball over to Diego Castillo, who like the other Rays pitchers ran into a bit of trouble.

Outside of Pagan and Faria Rays hurlers had a bad night to saw the least. The Twins offense put up 10 runs on 11 hits on their way to handing the Rays their second loss of the year.

At the dish, things did not get much better. The Tampa Bay Rays offense mustered up eight hits on their way to scoring five runs.

Brandon Lowe got the scoring started for the Tampa Bay Rays when he ripped a double down the right field line to plate Joey Wendle.  Austin Meadows in the next inning produced a two RBI double of his own scoring Jesus Sanchez and Andrew Velazquez. Those are two hitters Rays fans can not wait to see producing at the Major League level.

The fourth run came by way of a sac fly from Michael Brosseau that plated Moises Gomez. Run number five scored the same way only this time it was Miles Mastrobuoni who plated Moises Gomez via the sac fly.

At the plate, the Rays did not have a single player record a multi-hit game.

There is only one place to go, and that is up from this contest. The Tampa Bay Rays will try to bounce back tomorrow afternoon against the New York Yankees. That game will be broadcasted on FS Sun with first pitch slated for 1:05 EST. Do not forget to follow on Twitter and interact with us!