BALTIMORE — Tampa Bay Rays starter Griffin Jax is day to day with a back contusion after a 107.2 mph line drive struck him in the lower back during the second inning of a 6-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.
The Rays committed three errors that led to six unearned runs in the defeat — their season-high-tying third straight loss and their first series defeat in more than a month, dating to a set against the Reds on April 20-22. Despite the scare, Jax said he is “100% confident” he will make his next scheduled start.
“Arm feels great. Body feels great. Just going through some basic movements, don’t feel too limited,” Jax said. “It’s all in all scary, but I think it was a safe place to be hit.”
Leody Taveras smoked the comebacker that bounced off the right side of Jax’s lower back, around the bottom of the numbers on his jersey. Jax went down in obvious pain but threw a warmup pitch and stayed in the game after being checked on by manager Kevin Cash and head athletic trainer Joe Benge. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz praised the pitcher’s grit: “Jax is a tough dude to stay in the game like that.”
Jax said he felt his back tighten after every pitch as the inning continued and relayed that to pitching coach Kyle Snyder during a mound visit. “I was just like, ‘I’ve got to try to get through this inning, because if I take a minute, it’s going to be a little bit too tight,’” Jax said. He retired Gunnar Henderson to finish the second but did not return for the third. Lefty Garrett Cleavinger, right-hander Trevor Martin and new addition Craig Kimbrel handled the remaining innings.
The Rays’ defense compounded the damage. In the second, Jeremiah Jackson singled to load the bases, and Blaze Alexander’s grounder up the middle took a bad bounce off second base that second baseman Richie Palacios couldn’t secure, allowing Samuel Basallo to score. Jackson Holliday followed with an RBI single and Taylor Ward added a sacrifice fly. “It was on my body, just didn’t know where it was,” Palacios said. “I tried to pick it up and wasn’t able to do that. So it was a tough play. Weird play.”
In the fifth, shortstop Oliver Dunn — starting in place of Taylor Walls, who was a late scratch due to a tight hamstring — was charged with an error after replay showed he took his foot off the bag on a force attempt. Basallo then swatted a three-run homer to right-center. Former Rays starter Shane Baz dominated his old teammates on the other side, striking out nine while allowing just one run over seven innings.
“We’re human. We’re gonna make errors. Don’t try to overcompensate,” Palacios said. “Just continue to play the game. We’ll be all right.”
The Rays will look to avoid a three-game sweep in the series finale at Camden Yards.