Rays 7, White Sox 8: Windy City Woes
Rays lose to league-worst White Sox... again.
On a cold and windy night in Chicago, the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the worst team in Major League Baseball for a second consecutive night. If you though Friday night might have been rock bottom for a team that is currently being held together by bubble gum and scotch tape, you were wrong.
The day started off with poor injury news as Josh Lowe is seemingly headed for some additional time on the IL as the hamstring injury that cut his Spring short, is bothering him again. The night ended with another unsightly performance from Phil Maton that included surrendering a walk-off bomb to Andrew Benintendi.
In between the injury news and a walk off blast that earned the White Sox their 5th... yes... 5th win of the season, the Rays and White Sox battled it out to see which incomplete and lackluster lineup could come out on top.
The White sox did, and did so even after trying to hand the Rays a win in the 10th inning.
The Rays jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd inning thanks to a Jose Caballero RBI single. Then, in the fourth inning Richie Palacios hit his third blast of the year, a two-run bomb, to stretch the lead to 3-0.
However, the White Sox would have an answer in the bottom half of the fourth as the first two batters reached on singles and Andrew Benintendi tied the game with a blast of his own.
In the top of the fifth, Austin Shenton gave the Rays the lead with a solo shot, the first of his career. Rays would take a 5-4 lead. Again the Sox would answer in the bottom half. After a pair of singles from Nicky Lopez and Tommy Pham started the inning, Gavin Sheets tied the game with an RBI ground-rule double.
After getting Eloy Jimenez to sound out, Civale’s night would be over. His line, however was still open. Shawn Armstrong would follow Civale and promptly give up a run on a fielders choice. The White Sox would take a 5-4 lead. Then, Benintendi would tack on another run with an RBI single, extending the lead to 6-4.
Civale’s line was finally closed and it was less than stellar to say the least. In 4.1 innings of work, Civale surrendered 8 hits, 6 earned runs, and struck out 3.
The Rays would come back to tie the game on a Randy Arozarena double in the top of the sixth inning. The score would remain 6-6 until the 10th inning.
In extras, the Rays were handed a run thanks to a pair of wild pitches and took the lead 7-6, only for Phil Maton to enter and give up a game winning blast to Andrew Benintendi.
The loss dropped the Rays record to 13-15. The win for the White Sox improve their record to 5-22. The Rays will try to salvage a win on Sunday with Littell on the mound at 2:10 PM ET.