Shane Bieber last faced the Rays on July 23rd in what was potentially an audition to acquire the veteran pitcher. In that game, he scattered three hits and a single run as Toronto won the contest 3-1. The Jays did some buying and selling at the deadline, and Bieber remained with the club to the detriment of the Rays as he once again disposed of the lineup with ease in a 5-1 Toronto win.
Bieber once again went seven complete innings scattering four singles while allowing a sole unearned run scored
by Chandler Simpson. Simpson reaching on a single while advancing to second on an error by Ernie Clement was about the only thing that went the Rays way in a contest where the 63-66 team was in complete control of the division-leading 76-51 club. Consider this game saw each of the following events:
- Ian Seymour was a pitch away from an immaculate inning to begin this game until Alejandro Kirk spoiled the fun spitting on an 0-2 changeup and then making Seymour throw eight more pitches in that plate appearances before collecting yet another hit in this series. Kirk has been a modern day Ben Francisco to Andy Sonnanstine situation for the Rays pitchers this season.
- George Springer drove in two runs on a ball that left his eviscerated bat at 42.4 miles and took nine hops through an indecisive infield:
- Daz Cameron hit a titantic 442-foot blast into the D-ring in the 5th inning, which was the third of three solo shots allowed by Ian Seymour in the game. Ironically, Cameron’s last major league home run came 442 days ago on June 4th, 2025:
- Yandy Diaz has now seen at least 2000 pitches this season, and has yet to challenge a single one. It remains the longest such streak in baseball. While he did single later in this at bat, the 0-1 fastball that was called a strike was, in fact, not one:
Diaz not challenging pitches is still better than batters wasting challenges on 1-2 pitches with nobody out in the 3rd inning as Nick Fortes did on a pitch that was fully in the strike zone. Teams get two challenges a game and this was a foolishly wasted one:
Simply put, this was a miserable game to wrap up a miserable homestand. The only two wins of the homestand centered around fielding miscues for an offense that scraped together 30 runs over 7 games while the pitching staff and defense permitted 47 runs.
The team heads off to Baltimore, who has given them fits all season. The Rays took what was supposed to be an advantageous portion of the schedule with sub-.500 teams coming into Tropicana Field and played arguably some of their worst baseball in some time.
