Rays 0, Rangers 3: Baz looks good in return, batters remain quiet despite eight walks

After winning their fifth straight series, the Tampa Bay Rays entered Friday’s game one game above .500, looking to improve on that mark against the defending champions. Despite a lively return from Shane Baz, the Rays’ bats were silent despite eight free passes from Texas pitchers. Nine innings, three hits and zero runs later, the Rays lost the series opener and fell back to .500.

Shane Baz started against Michael Lorenzen. For Baz, it was his first major league start since 2022. The electric right-hander pitched 6 innings, including five scoreless innings. The 25-year-old struck out six, walked one and gave up seven hits. He allowed the only runs of the game in the third inning. The Rangers managed to score three runs in the bottom half of the third. The score remained 3-0 for the remainder of the game and Baz ultimately took the loss.

Lorenzen pitched five scoreless innings despite walking five. He struck out four and allowed just one hit, a double by Brandon Lowe. LeClerc, Latz, Robertson and Yates combined to pitch the remaining four innings. LeClerc walked one and Latz walked two.

Rangers pitchers had 10 strikeouts while the Rays staff struck out seven.

All the runs came in the bottom of the third inning. Lady Taveras opened the frame with a leadoff single, but was thrown out trying to steal second base. Hill then threw out. But, with two outs, Ornelas and Semien singled, giving Seager an RBI chance. The WS MVP homered and scored both runners on a double to the left-center gap. The shot into the gap gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead that would quickly grow to 3-0 on an RBI single by Nate Lowe.

The 3-0 lead would hold and Rangers would eventually win by the same score.

The Rays left 11 runners on base and finished 0-10 with RISP. Their three hits came from Brandon Lowe (double), Randy Arozarena (single) and Josh Lowe (single). Palacios drew three walks and Paredes was 0-4 with one strikeout.

Maton and Armstrong each pitched scoreless innings and kept the game close. The Rays’ biggest threat came in the fifth inning when Lorenzen loaded the bases for the inning but got Brandon Lowe to ground out on a curveball below the zone.

The Rays were unable to muster a big hit or a hit of consequence and were shut out by the fifth different team this year. Still, the return of Shane Baz to the Rays’ rotation was a victory in itself.

The Rays will try to get back over .500 tomorrow with Taj Bradley on the mound opposite Andrew Heaney.