The Rays are on a new streak, but they sure didn’t want it. After having their home unbeaten streak 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 ‘beating streak’ of the season. The Rays, who fell to 20-5, also lost their first series of the year at Tropicana Field and didn’t hit a home run for the third straight game. They were shut out for 19 straight innings by the defending World Series champions.
It was the first time the Rays had been shut out in back-to-back games since last September 19-20, when the Astros also shut them out.
For the second night in a row, Tampa Bay ran into a dominant pitcher. Manuel Margot managed two hits off Astros righty Hunter Brown, who threw seven scoreless innings, scattering two hits and working around two walks while striking out eight.
Brown has now thrown 50.2 innings in the big leagues without giving up a home run.
The rookie’s dominant performance came a night after Luis Garcia silenced the Rays’ bats. Astros pitchers now have 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 an off night Tuesday, went 0 for 2 with a walk and a strikeout. He is 0 for his last 15 with 10 strikeouts.
The Rays got a pretty good start Wednesday night. Tampa Bay reliever Calvin Faucher was charged with the only run on a 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 one walk. He hit 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 struck out Kyle Tucker. Franco shook off Alex Bregman’s soft hit, allowing the run to score.
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