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Rays Left Searching After Another Loss

Tribune photo by JASON BEHNKEN

Oakland Athletics center fielder Carlos Gonzalez makes a diving catch during the fifth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday night at Tropicana Field.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 23, 2008

Updated: 07/23/2008 01:38 am

ST. PETERSBURG - The blame for the Rays' 8-1 loss to Oakland on Tuesday could be laid at the feet of Andy Sonnanstine for one costly pitch or on Tampa Bay's hitters for another long night of ineffective swings.

Either way, it wasn't pretty by the time it ended before a mostly empty Tropicana Field, most of the 16,800 in attendance having departed after a four-run eighth inning by Oakland put the game out of reach. In fact, it bore some resemblance to the sluggish efforts turned in by a tired group of Rays during their seven-game losing streak heading into the All-Star break.

Following the game, Joe Maddon and executive vice president Andrew Friedman met for about 45 minutes behind closed doors in the manager's office, but no news was forthcoming. Perhaps they were discussing adding a right-handed bat to help them down the stretch, because what they're doing right now against left-handed starters isn't working - no matter how accomplished the opposing southpaw might be.

In Dallas Braden's case, he isn't, really. The lefty entered the game with a career record of 2-8 and a 6.39 ERA, and he was making his first start in the big leagues this year after nine relief appearances. He limited the Rays to one run in five innings despite allowing four hits and walking four more batters, and he didn't have to work all that hard to do so.

The Rays ran their way out of their most promising inning, the third. Having loaded the bases with one out on walks by Akinori Iwamura and Evan Longoria around a Carl Crawford single, the Rays appeared well-positioned with Carlos Pena at the plate.

Pena did enough to get the first run of the game home, lifting a sacrifice fly to left, but Crawford got caught off the bag between second and third as the throw home was cut off, and he was tagged out to end the inning.

Tampa Bay put at least one runner on base in every inning but the ninth, but it never mounted a threat against Braden or the A's bullpen. The Rays are 16-15 when opponents start a lefty this year, compared to 42-26 against right-handed starters.

"I'm not concerned about it," Maddon said. "We'll continue to work at it. Monday, everybody was real happy after the game, and we're not so happy today."

Braden's cause was aided by teammate Jack Hannahan, who was responsible for all the damage done against Sonnanstine in his seven otherwise outstanding innings. After consecutive singles by Carlos Gonzalez and Bobby Crosby with one out in the fourth, Hannahan took a full-count pitch from Sonnanstine over the wall in right to give Oakland a 3-1 lead it wouldn't relinquish.

"I don't think it was a bad pitch," Sonnanstine said. "I think he pretty much just guessed right in that situation and put a good swing on it."

The home run was only Hannahan's fifth of the season, but he also homered off Sonnanstine in the pitcher's last start against Oakland, a 9-1 Rays loss on May 21.

While Sonnanstine succeeded in keeping the game close, facing the minimum number of hitters for the remainder of his outing after the Hannahan homer, the Rays' bullpen let things get out of hand. Trever Miller had his second consecutive rough outing, walking two batters around a Kurt Suzuki double to open the eighth and watching all three runners come around to score.

A missed catch by Ben Zobrist allowed another A's run to score in the eighth, and another off-target delivery by Zobrist on what should have been an inning-ending ground out in the ninth let in the final run.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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