MILWAUKEE — Debuting the City Connect uniforms on Friday should work out well for the Rays.
Because they way they’re playing, they could use a new identity.
Wednesday’s 7-1 loss to the Brewers capped a miserable 1-5 road trip in which they were swept by a White Sox team that started the series with a majors-low three wins and then lost two of three to the Brewers, scoring four runs total.
“Pretty rough,” said 10th-year manager Kevin Cash. “Maybe one of the rougher ones that I can recall. We just didn’t do many things very well. We didn’t necessarily beat ourselves. We just got beat — outplayed, outperformed in really every aspect.”
The Rays have lost eight of their last 10 games and headed home in last place in the American League East with a 14-18 record. It is the first time they’ve been four or more games under .500 since the 2018 season.
“Since I’ve been here, I don’t think we’ve been (on) such a negative streak like we have,” Yandy Diaz, a Ray since 2019, said via team interpreter Manny Navarro. “We’re trying to do things better, but it doesn’t seem like things are coming our way. Little by little, hopefully.”
As has been the case during much of their rough opening month, the Rays struggled to produce much offense.
Wednesday was among their low points, an eighth-inning, run-scoring wild pitch the only thing that kept them from being shut out for the first time.
“It’s tough,” said outfielder Richie Palacios, one of the few Rays who is hitting right now. “We’ve just got to play better baseball, all facets of the game. We’ve just got to come together and produce. I know we’re trying hard, obviously. Some times we try too hard. But we try to go out there and play a better brand of baseball as a total.”
They didn’t make much contact, and most of what they did was soft, with only four balls, all outs, clocked in excess of 100 mph. Their five hits were all singles — two of which didn’t leave the infield — and they got only four runners past second base. They were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine on.
“We’re just not getting it done,” Cash said. “We’ve got to do a little bit better job of that. Some good at-bats early, but that big hit is really tough to come by right now to put some runs on the board and keep us in games.”
In the three games against the Brewers — a 1-0 win and losses of 8-2 and 7-1 — 15 of their 16 hits were singles. (The other was Jose Siri’s homer Tuesday that eventually led to a brawl and multiple suspensions.)
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Explore all your options“You’ve got to find ways to put a ball in the gap, knock it out of the ballpark. Got to get some walks,” Cash said. “These guys, they’re wearing it right now. They feel it. And they’re frustrated by it. We’ve just got to stay at it.”
While Cash said the Brewers pitchers deserve some credit, “there’s no denying our approaches are not very good right now, not solid. We’ve got to kind of put our heads together to collectively make an adjustment as an offense, as as a team right now. We’ve just got to do a better job.”
There are some things they could try, such as shuffling a lineup that still includes .211-hitting Diaz and .139-hitting Randy Arozarena in the top four. But their options are somewhat limited until they start (maybe by next week) getting back some of their injured players, such as Josh Lowe, Jonathan Aranda and Jonny DeLuca.
“Potentially, we’re thinking through those things all the time,” Cash said. “You can mix up the lineup. You still in theory want your best hitters to get as many at-bats as possible. So, that’s why you rush them to the front of the lineup.”
Zach Eflin gave the Rays a solid start, allowing three runs (including a solo homer by ex-Ray Willy Adames) while working into the sixth. But as bad as the offense has been, there is not much room for error. The Brewers added four, including a three-run blast by Adames, off reliever Erasmo Ramirez.
“It’s been a difficult month, I’d say, on all sides of the ball,” Eflin said. “I wouldn’t single (the hitters) out by any means. We’ve just got to do a better job of playing together.”
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