The Rays are on a new streak, but certainly, not one they wanted. After they had their unbeaten streak at home snapped on Tuesday, the Rays fell 1-0 to the Astros on Wednesday night in front of a crowd of 14,168 at Tropicana Field.
They have been shut out in two straight games and are on their first “losing streak” of the season. The Rays, who dropped to 20-5, also lost their first series of the year at Tropicana Field and did not hit a home run for the third straight game. They have been shut out for 19 straight innings by the defending World Series champions.
It was the first time the Rays have been shutout in back-to-back games since Sept. 19-20 last year, when the Astros also shut them down.
For the second straight night, Tampa Bay ran into a dominating pitcher. Manuel Margot managed two hits off Astros right-hander Hunter Brown, who threw seven scoreless innings, scattering two hits and working around two walks while striking out eight.
Brown has now throw 50.2 innings in the big leagues without having given up a home run.
The rookie’s dominating performance came a night after Luis Garcia silenced the Rays’ bats. The Astros’ pitchers have now posted three shutouts this season.
Tampa Bay’s hitters are going through their first real struggles of the season. Yandy Diaz went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, Wander Franco went 0-for-3, and Randy Arozarena went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts and a walk.
Brandon Lowe, after a night off Tuesday, went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout. He is 0 for his last 15 with 10 strikeouts.
The Rays got some pretty good pitching of their own Wednesday night. Calvin Faucher, the reliever Tampa Bay is stretching out, was charged with the lone run on one hit, a wild pitch and an error in two innings of work.
Josh Fleming came in and gave the Rays six scoreless innings in relief. Fleming worked around four hits and a walk. He struck out two.
Faucher, making his third straight “start,” gave up one run on one hit and two walks. In the first, Jeremy Pena hit a one-out single before Faucher walked Kyle Tucker. Franco bobbled Alex Bregman’s soft grounder, allowing the run to score.
()