Simulated Season (05/19): Tampa Bay Rays finally lose a game

The Tampa Bay Rays have been on a tear, winning six straight games before heading to Boston to take on the Red Sox at Fenway today.

Baseball-Reference’s OOTP Simulated 2020 Season Update:

After completing sweeps of the Yankees and the Orioles, the Tampa Bay Rays took a day off and traveled to Boston to meet up with the Red Sox.

The Rays had been on fire over the past week. Their starting pitching finally started coming around with a solid outing from Charlie Morton and a complete game, one-hit shutout from Tyler Glasnow.

You can’t win them all. The Rays looked like they could have used an extra day off to recover from all the excitement of the past week. They went from a .500 club to 27-22 entering today’s game. The Red Sox came in with a 24-24 record.

Yonny Chirinos took the mound for Tampa Bay and Colin McHugh toed the rubber for the Red Sox.

Chirinos just couldn’t catch a break today as his record dropped to 4-5. He worked his way through 6.2 innings and walked zero, but he did give up four runs on ten hits. Meanwhile, the Rays recent offensive fireworks finally fizzled out today. The Rays managed two runs on just four hits, leaving 10 runners on base.

Rays Notes

Brandon Lowe continued to rake, going 1-3 with a homer and two RBI. Lowe raised his average to .325 on the season and now has a team-leading nine home runs and his 32nd RBI. Lowe’s homer broke a four-way tie for first place on the team. Nate Lowe, Austin Meadows, and Hunter Renfroe round out the second spot with eight each.

Kevin Kiermaier continues to hit leadoff despite a .213 average. He went 0-3 today with one walk.

Kiermaier did have a spectacular throw to nail Devers at third base.

News Around AL East

The Rays remain four games back of the Yankees as they were shutout by the Milwaukee Brewers 6-0.

Tomorrow the Rays will roll out Charlie Morton (4-5, 5.86) against LHP Matt Hall (2-1, 5.94). Morton looks to build on the momentum he gained in his last start.