Sometimes past results do not predict today’s performance.
Shane McClanahan came into the night having allowed only two home runs over his last 56.0 innings pitched. Six pitches into Tuesday night’s game, he allowed two more.
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The game didn’t immediately start with doom and gloom. Taylor Walls made a diving play on a grounder from Lane Thomas to open the game. Then Nick Loftin hit a solo homer to left. Then, Tampa native, Jac Caglianone followed with one to right. Two swings, two runs, and suddenly the Royals had a 2-0 lead. McClanahan recovered enough to strike out Salvador Perez and get Carter Jensen to fly out, but the damage was immediate and jarring. Tropicana Field has been kind to McLanahan lately, winning his previous five starts. This inning, an ultimately game, was not.
The Rays didn’t just concede defeat; they tried to fight back. Yandy Díaz was hit by a pitch, Jonathan Aranda singled, and Junior Caminero lined a run-scoring single to center to make it 2-1. It started to feel like the Rays were on a path to tie the game or maybe even take a lead. Instead, Richie Palacios got caught stealing to end the frame.
Building momentum and losing it became a theme of the night.
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In the second, Jonny DeLuca and Chandler Simpson were walked, and after a Taylor Walls flyout and a Simpson stolen base, the Rays had runners at second and third with just one out. A tie game felt right there, practically waving from 90 feet away. Then Hunter Feduccia and Diaz struck out and took the hope back into the dugout with them.
In the third, Cedric Mullins drew a walk, but Caminero lined into a double play.
The disappointment continued in the fourth, the Royals tried to give the game away again, or at least leave the door cracked. DeLuca reached on a little pop-up single that would have been a foul ball, but the Royals touched it while it was bouncing foul. Simpson reached on a fielder’s choice, and Walls walked once again, putting runners on base. Feduccia struck out again, and it was still a 2-1 game.
McClanahan, meanwhile, had steadied himself after the strange first inning, but the fifth turned the game from frustrating to decisive. Michael Massey opened with a double, and Tyler Tolbert’s sacrifice bunt became a run when McClanahan threw it away, literally. The throwing error made it 3-1. McClanahan nearly limited it from there. Kameron Misner struck out. Thomas lined out. One more out and the Rays are still within two.
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They did not get that out cleanly. Loftin, already responsible for the first homer of the night, singled home Tolbert. Then Caglianone launched his second homer of the game, a two-run shot to left-center. Just like that, 3-1 became 6-1, and the chances of the Rays winning were floating away like a helium balloon unintentionally released.
The Rays’ offense did little to change the course of the game. They went down in order in the fifth, got a Palacios single in the sixth but nothing around it, and wasted a Díaz walk in the seventh. Steven Cruz and Matt Strahm did exactly what Kansas City needed from the bullpen to keep the Rays’ bats cool.
Steven Matz gave Tampa Bay a clean seventh, but the eighth got away from him in a hurry. Loftin singled, Caglianone singled, and Perez doubled both of them in. Jensen singled, Starling Marte added a sacrifice fly, Misner doubled home another run, and a wild pitch brought in one more. It was 11-1 by the end of the inning after the entire Royals lineup came to the plate.
Caminero gave the Rays a small spark in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer off the catwalk, his 16th, and the ninth inning brought a little late pride and surrender.
Ben Williamson gave us a position player pitching appearance and allowed an RBI double to Josh Rojas in the top half of the ninth. Then the Rays put together their best rally of the night, just a little too late. Simpson walked, Walls singled, and after two strikeouts, Aranda, Mullins, and Caminero delivered three straight RBI singles. That trimmed it to 12-5 and at least made the final score look somewhat more respectable. Palacios flew out to end it, sealing a 12-5 Royals win.
The visiting team has now won the last nine games in this Rays-Royals series, dating back to July 4, 2024. We will see if that streak continues tomorrow when Griffin Jax takes the mound for the Rays.
