Game 59: Chris Archer Dominant, But Rays Lose 1-0

It has been a rough go of things lately for the Tampa Bay Rays, and that continued against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday. On a positive note, Chris Archer had one of his best starts of the season and the Rays would give up just 1 run. But, the offense would falter once again, and that would lead to a 1-0 loss. The Rays are now 23-36 on the season.

Chris Archer pitched extremely well. He scattered five hits in seven innings and struck out eight. A bases loaded walk was the only blemish he would have on the night. After starting off the season poorly, Archer has now been at the head of the Rays’ pitching staff’s resurgence. He has given up just 3 runs in his last 4 starts, and his command has looked much better over that time. After Archer, Joel Peralta threw a perfect inning. The pitching staff has finally been living up to expectation’s lately. Now if the offense just could get going.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that was feasibly possible given the Rays lost their 8th in a row, had their worst road trip in team history, and only forced Marlins pitcher Henderson Alvarez to throw 15 pitches total from the seventh until the end of the game (5 in the 7th, 5 in the 8th, and 5 in the 9th).  The offense collected eight hits but throughout, not a bad mark. But a pair of double plays hurt them, and they couldn’t put together timely hits. James Loney and Yunel Escobar both had nice 2-3 performances. Kevin Kiermaier showcased his great speed with a hustle triple. However, they would only take three at-bats with runners in scoring position, and they would not get a hit in that time. They are going to have to start stringing together multiple hits in an inning if things are going to change for the better.

The Rays and Marlins are pack in action tomorrow, this one at Tropicana field with Tom Koehler and David Price the probable pitchers. Finally their nightmare road trip is over and they can work on getting the offense going in front of the home crowd.