A long day for Jalen Beeks, and a losing result for Rays vs. Mariners
SEATTLE — Jalen Beeks’ Saturday started with a 6 a.m. wake up in Jacksonville and the usual hassles of an early-morning trip to the airport.
His flight out was delayed about three hours, then when he got to Denver 3 1/2 hours later, he scrambled to a connecting flight and spent another three hours in the air to Seattle. By the time he got to T-Mobile Park, the game between his Rays and the Mariners was already in the second inning, so he quickly got ready.
And a couple innings later, about 15 hours after waking up on the other side of the country, he found himself in the middle of a mess, in what ended up an 8-3 loss to the Mariners.
“That’s how it works,” Beeks said.
After the Rays struck for two runs to tie the score in their sixth inning, Tyler Glasnow, who had an overall solid start, allowed the Mariners to go back ahead, 3-2. Beeks was summoned to get the Rays out of a bases-loaded jam and he did.
But the next inning didn’t go so well, as he allowed a walk and three straight hits leading to the three runs that separated the game. The loss ended the Rays’ three-game winning streak and their season-long hold on the majors’ best record, as they dropped to 57-29 (.663) and behind the Braves (55-27, .671).
“That stinks for Jalen, just because it is a long day of travel,” manager Kevin Cash said. “He came in and got, at the time, (Jose) Caballero, a big out. To keep it right there, 3-2, we’re feeling pretty good about ourselves. But wanted to send him back out and see if we keep it right there. But it just didn’t go that way — a leadoff walk and a couple of base hits and it opened up.”
Beeks said the fatigue wasn’t the factor.
“I didn’t feel physically off,” he said. “It’s just always been my mechanics have just been off this year. We’ve just been really working on it and working hard down in Triple A. It’s never fun to get demoted (as he was June 14). I’ve just been trying to get my stuff back to where it was before.”
He walked J.P. Crawford to get the seventh off to a bad start, then allowed singles to Julio Rodriguez and Ty France that loaded the bases. A Teoscar Hernandez double that one-hopped the right-centerfield scored two, and a Eugenio Suarez sac fly made it 6-2.
“The walk, obviously, is always frustrating, but other than that I was in the zone,” Beeks said. “My stuff hasn’t been where I want it to be, but I was trying to come in there, just be in the zone and make them hit it, which they did. ... But obviously we want to win, and I didn’t do the job, which is frustrating.”
After scoring a season-high 15 runs (all from the fourth inning on) Friday, the Rays had a quiet Saturday, held without a hit into the sixth by strong Seattle starter George Kirby. Yandy Diaz doubled with one out and Luke Raley homered with two to briefly get them even in the sixth.
Glasnow, who struck out 11 and felt better about improving his mechanics, immediately let the Mariners go back ahead, allowing a one-out double to Hernandez, hitting Suarez on a 3-2 pitch with two outs and giving up a well-placed single by Jarred Kelenic as he approached 100 pitches for the first time this season.
“I felt fine,” Glasnow said. “My stuff wasn’t as good, wasn’t as sharp. I was getting behind guys.”
Glasnow said he would trade some of the strikeouts for fewer runs, but felt it was a solid outing overall, and his work was “trending in the right direction.” Cash was also pleased, saying they were “very encouraged by his outing.”
And Raley said the Rays still felt they were very much in the game after falling behind.
“Truly, I don’t feel like momentum ever gets taken from this team,” he said. “We know that we’re never out of a game. We never give in. I definitely didn’t feel a momentum switch. Glas made a good pitch and Kelenic hit a hit a nice ball and it happens.”
Down 6-2 in the eighth, the Rays had one more shot. Singles by Christian Bethancourt, Diaz and Wander Franco got them one run, and Raley had a chance to get them closer. “We had the right guys up,” Cash said.
But Raley grounded into a double play, and that was pretty much it.
“So that stinks,” Raley said. “But we move on.”
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