After going on an 8-2 stretch where they looked like they were catapulting back into the playoff race, the Tampa Bay Rays dropped their second game in a row last night, losing to the Detroit Tigers 2-1. The Rays’ offense had a tough time for the second night in a row, only scoring one run against a mediocre Brad Penny and squandering multiple opportunities to score.
David Price pitched for the Rays, and he threw one of his best starts in recent memory. He lasted eight innings while only allowing eight baserunners (six hits, two walks), and he didn’t allow a single homerun.
For some analysis on Price’s night, check out the game recap over at DRaysBay:
Price threw 115 pitches on the night, 82 of them (non-cut) fastballs, generating generating 8.5% swinging strikes on those pitches. As for secondary offerings, Price threw his changeup 22 times, generating 4 swinging strikes (18%), and his cutter nine times (though I think four other pitches were probably cut fastballs that didn’t cut very much). He worked the outside part of the plate to right handed hitters with the backdoor cutter, and got either 3 or 5 called strikes out of it, depending on what classifications you believe. As his third pitch, the cutter is coming along nicely, although the runs Price gave up came when a frontdoor cutter to Alex Avila leaked too far back over the plate (pitch 4, Avila is left handed).
The Rays will face the Tigers again Wednesday night at 7:10pm, and they will have to win in order to avoid losing this four-game series. Wade Davis will be on the mound for the Rays, facing off against Max Scherzer.