ST. PETERSBURG — The next 10 days could look a lot like October for the Rays.
Their 1-0 loss to the Mariners on Thursday night at Tropicana Field began a stretch of 11 consecutive games against teams positioned to make the postseason: Seattle, Minnesota and the big one, American League East-leading Baltimore.
The Rays hope the experience proves to be beneficial, a chance to take their opponents’ best shot while they’re looking to find their place in a still-unsettled playoff picture. They got exactly that in the series opener with the Mariners, as they were shut out for the sixth time this season to waste a brilliant eight-inning performance by starter Zack Littell.
- Games remaining: vs. SEA (3), at MIN (3), at BAL (4), vs. LAA (3), vs. TOR (3), at BOS (2), at TOR (3)
- Standings update: The Orioles (88-51) hold a four-game lead over the Rays (85-56) in the AL East. Tampa Bay remains the top AL Wild Card team, the club that gets to host a best-of-three Wild Card Series against the AL’s No. 5 seed, with a 5 1/2-game lead over Seattle.
It felt like the style of game the Rays might play a lot more often in the coming weeks.
“I think you relate it to a World Series game,” Rays first baseman Yandy Díaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “Both pitchers pitching pretty good, not a lot of offense, a tight game.”
Littell, the converted reliever who moved into the Rays’ rotation in July, put together an incredible outing in the potential postseason preview. The right-hander breezed through a career-high eight innings — his previous high was six innings, set three times last month — on only 86 pitches.
Littell allowed only five hits and one walk while striking out four in his ninth “true” start of the season. It was the first time he’d completed seven innings since May 1, 2019 (for Triple-A Rochester) and his first eight-inning outing since he was pitching for Double-A Trenton on July 8, 2017.
“He was efficient and pretty dominant, too, with the way that he navigated through that lineup,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “When you get that efficient, get that deep in the ballgame, everything’s got to be working. Felt like it was. Certainly the strike-throwing was.”
Littell never threw more than 18 pitches in an inning, and he had single-digit pitch counts in five of his eight frames. It was the longest start by a Rays pitcher since Drew Rasmussen went 8 1/3 innings in a perfect-game bid on Aug. 14, 2022. Littell’s 86 pitches tied Bryan Rekar (8 1/3 innings on June 1, 2000) and Ryan Rupe (nine innings on May 23, 1999) for the fewest in an outing of at least eight innings in franchise history.
Unfortunately for Littell, he also became the second Rays pitcher — James Shields did so twice — to take a loss despite allowing just one run over eight innings or more.
Even one lapse turned out to be costly when lined up against the Mariners’ stingy staff, and it came in the second inning. Eugenio Suárez hit a leadoff double to left field, advanced to third on Ty France’s groundout and scored on a Mike Ford single to center. Littell walked the next batter, but then he retired 19 of the final 20 hitters he faced.
“It’s more disappointing that we couldn’t get Littell a win tonight,” catcher Christian Bethancourt said. “We had our chances, and we just didn’t take advantage of it.”
Indeed, the Rays couldn’t get anything going against Luis Castillo and the Mariners’ bullpen. They put a pair of runners on with one out in each of the first three innings and effectively drove up Castillo’s pitch count, but the right-hander shut down each of Tampa Bay’s rallies without allowing a runner to even reach third.
The Rays managed only four hits overall, none after the fifth inning and none in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, while striking out 14 times.
“The whole staff is really good. I thought our guys did a really good job of putting together some good at-bats,” said Littell, who gave way to reliever Andrew Kittredge in the ninth. “We had a few situations where obviously we just didn’t get one across. I thought we put some good swings on the ball. Had some balls that just didn’t fall. … Just means we’re due, I guess.”
Tampa Bay is due for more postseason-style matchups like this, too, even if October is still more than three weeks away.
“Those are the types of games we’re going to be playing until October,” Bethancourt said. “We’ve got to take advantage when we have situations [with runners on base] and when we can get the starting pitcher out of the game early.”
