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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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O’s 4, Rays 2: A tough loss to the cellar dwellers

Posted Sep 14, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Sep 14, 2011 at 12:01 AM

ROGER MOONEY
BALTIMORE Well, they knew they weren’t going to finish the season undefeated.

“I was really hoping for it,” manager Joe Maddon said. “But it didn’t want to happen.”

The Rays lost 4-2 on Tuesday night to the Orioles to snap a five-game winning streak, and, with the Red Sox win against the Blue Jays, fell four games back of Boston in the AL Wild Card standings.

J.P. Howell took the loss after surrendering a long, two-run homer by Matt Wieters with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.

Maddon left the left-handed Howell in to face the switch-hitting Wieters because Maddon said he liked the match-up.

Wieters, however, is batting .342 against lefties and only .233 vs. righties.

“We do a lot of work prior to each series to try and figure out what we like and what we don’t like, and I liked it,” Maddon said. “I liked it but it did not work out.”

It was Howell’s third loss of the season.

“It makes you sick,” he said. “We were flowing, you know what I mean. I wanted to keep the ship sailing forward, and now the boys pick me up, and that’s how this game works. Now I’ll be ready to go (tonight), that’s for sure.”

Here are some notes from a tough loss …

—The Rays need to win tonight to ensure they are not more than four games back of the Red Sox when they begin a pivotal four-game series Thursday in Boston.

—A win tonight and a Red Sox loss and the Rays are three back headed into Fenway. A Rays loss and a Red Sox win the Red Sox have a five-game lead.

—Evan Longoria hit his 26th home run of the season, a two-run shot in the sixth inning that gave the Rays a 2-1 lead.

—The Rays managed just seven hits, snapping a three-game streak of getting at least 10 hits.

—David Price allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings to turn in a quality start. Rays starters have worked six or more innings in 29 of their last 33 games.

—Maddon had the switch-hitting Jose Lobaton pinch-hit against the right-handed Jimmy Johnson with two outs and no one on in the ninth inning rather than Sam Fuld, because he wanted Fuld to get a chance to bat with a runner on, which would have happened only if Lobaton reached base.

Fuld is the Rays best pinch-hitter with six hits in 15 at-bats.