Angels, Mike Trout ruin night for Rays after strong Zach Eflin start
ST. PETERSBURG — As Mike Trout’s 420-foot blast sailed over the leftfield fence in the eighth inning Monday night, taking the Rays’ lead with it, manager Kevin Cash flashed back briefly to his conversation with reporters before the game.
And the irony of it.
Cash was asked about the challenge of facing Trout, whose hot 2024 start included a 6-for-12, two-homer series against the Rays last week. He said the best strategy was to keep runners from being on base when the three-time American League MVP walks to the plate.
“He’s good, he’s going to get his hits,” Cash said. “You just hope the damage comes when maybe there’s nobody on base. But Mike Trout’s too talented to really hold down.”
They got a painful reminder Monday night, as Trout’s two-run homer off reliever Phil Maton sparked a five-run Angels uprising, ruining a strong bounce-back start by Zach Eflin, and leading to a frustrating 7-3 loss for the Rays.
“There’s no way around it; it sucks,” Maton said. “That’s a game that Eflin should be getting the W, (closer Pete Fairbanks) is getting a save. We have an opportunity to win that. That was our game to win.”
As if allowing the two-run homer to Trout — turning a 1-0 Tampa Bay lead into a 2-1 deficit — wasn’t bad enough, Maton allowed three more runs. He gave up singles to Taylor Ward and Miguel Sano, a two-out walk to Brandon Drury and a bases-clearing double to Matt Thaiss.
That felt even worse, Maton said, when Harold Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the Rays’ eighth, though reliever Kevin Kelly gave up a two-run shot to Taylor Ward in the ninth to reopen the margin.
“One hundred percent,” Maton said. “With Trout hitting a homer off you, that happens. It’s a big-league hitter. The guy’s a stud. But those extra three runs, not having the opportunity to kind of keep us in that ballgame, especially, too, after we scored right when I get back in there. So it’s tough, but ultimately you’ve just got to make better pitches.”
Maton, a free-agent addition, said the shape of his pitches was good but the inability to execute and get outs with two strikes did him in. Cash said the Rays were confident Maton would get straightened out.
The same for the bullpen overall, which was touted as the strength of the team but has been an issue so far this season, with a majors-worst 6.92 ERA as a stark reminder.
“The guys in the bullpen, it’s not coming easy for them right now,” Cash said. “It’s tough. All we can do is continue to give them the ball, continue to support them and trust that they’ll get themselves right.”
Though the Rays weren’t doing much offensively against Angels lefty Patrick Sandoval, getting just one run out of a promising bases-loaded, no-outs situation in the fifth, Eflin pitched well enough to put them in position to win.
He made amends for his rough 30th-birthday-spoiling outing April 8 in Anaheim, when he allowed the Angels five runs and lasted only five innings. Monday, he allowed a couple hits in the first and another when he was hit by a 100.1 mph Jo Adell liner in the third, then retired 11 in a row.
“It’s a really good lineup,” Eflin said. “They like hitting the baseball when it’s over the middle of the plate, so I had to do really everything I could to keep it on the corners and keep them guessing. ... It stinks to get the loss, but back at it (Tuesday).”
Eflin completed six innings on 69 pitches and took a shutout into the seventh, Cash leaving him in to start the inning without anyone even warming.
Eflin allowed a couple hits, but Jason Adam — thanks to a dazzling double play turn by Curtis Mead and Jose Caballero — got the Rays out of trouble with the 1-0 lead intact.
But that all disappeared quickly in the eighth when Trout — now hitting .320 with 10 homers, 19 RBIs and a 1.109 OPS in 27 career games at Tropicana Field — came up with one out in the eighth and first base open after Anthony Rendon singled and moved up on a passed ball, and hit the two-run, go-ahead homer.
“He’s the guy you don’t want to come up with guys on base,” Cash said afterward. “It’s pretty obvious.”
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