Rays 0 Red Sox 5: This is what a .500 team looks like

A match up of Tanner Houck, Boston’s impressive 27-year old righty, against Taj Bradley, the Rays 23-year old righty on the verge, we hope, of greatness, was likely to be a good (if low-scoring) game.

And for three innings that pitchers duel delivered. Houck allowed just one baserunner and it wasn’t even his fault; he had a 3-2 county on Jonathan Aranda when his infield was dinged for an “illegal defensive set up” e.g. violation of the no-shift rule, the penalty for which is a ball, which meant Aranda got a 3-ball walk. (I’m making this sound simple but it involved a very lengthy delay while umpires conferred with the folks in NY). And the one hit he allowed didn’t even result in a baserunner. Yandy Diaz hit a hard liner into right field and tried to stretch his single into a double. It took a good throw to get him and I don’t hate the aggressiveness given that hits were hard to come by, but I could pretty much tell as he rounded first that he would probably get thrown out.

Taj was even more masterful. He retired all nine Boston batters, eight on strikeouts.

Whatever magic Taj had going the first time through the lineup began to dissipate the second time through; the fourth inning opened with two hard hit balls that resulted in a run, and then a Devers home run for two more. The fifth inning was more of the same — hit, home run, Boston 5 Rays 0.

He didn’t give up many other hits or any other runs in his seven innings, but those two innings in the middle were enough to lose the game. Although ultimately it didn’t really matter whether he’d given up one run or five when your teammates can’t muster anything approaching a rally.

Meanwhile, Tanner Houck continued to dominate. He allowed just one other hit in the seventh inning, but that runner was erased on a double play. In other words, he more or less no-hit the Rays for seven innings.

The Rays got one other single in the bottom of the ninth, also erased on a double play! It’s hard to remember a game of such offensive futility.

For the Rays and their fans, then, the main excitement tonight was the Rays debut of Richard Lovelady, in which he retired the side.

All season, the few times the Rays have put together a streak of a few good games, they have been followed by several uncompetitive losses. I don’t know if momentum is a thing in baseball, but if it is this team is incapable of sustaining it. But I guess this is what a .500 team looks like — win a few, lose a few. It’s the privilege of being a Rays fan to have forgotten how it felt to watch a .500 team.