LOS ANGELES — The Tampa Bay Rays loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth inning trailing by a run, only to watch Cedric Mullins strike out on a slider, capping a 5-4 loss and a three-game sweep at the hands of the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers — all three decided by a single run.
The sweep concluded a 1-5 trip to Southern California and dropped Tampa Bay to 7-15 since May 24, the club’s worst stretch of the season. The Rays sit at 41-30 overall.
“We had some good at-bats there right at the end, just fell a little bit short,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Felt like we fell short a lot this series.”
The Dodgers won three straight one-run games for the first time since May 15-17, 2022, pulling out each victory on a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning or later. Miguel Rojas won the opener 4-3 with a seventh-inning shot off Steven Matz. Shohei Ohtani delivered a sixth-inning homer for a 1-0 win despite a brilliant start by Drew Rasmussen. And Freddie Freeman broke a tie with a two-run homer off reliever Kevin Kelly in the sixth to seal the finale.
“That’s just baseball, really,” Kelly said. “We’re going to play a lot of close games. Sometimes we come out on top. Sometimes they get the upper hand.”
The Rays combined to score only six total runs in their first four losses on the trip, but offense was not the problem in the finale. Tampa Bay sent nine batters to the plate in a four-run fifth inning against Ohtani, who entered the day leading the majors in ERA at 1.06 among pitchers with at least 50 innings. It marked only the second time this year Ohtani allowed multiple runs in the same inning. “We were able to differentiate the pitches that he was throwing, we put up good at-bats, and obviously the runs came,” said Yandy Díaz through interpreter Kevin Vera.
Starter Shane McClanahan could not hold the lead. His command wavered in the fourth — three walks and a pair of RBI singles — and he exited with two outs and the bases loaded in his shortest start of the season. His fastball averaged 96.9 mph, but McClanahan fell to 0-2 with a 7.11 ERA over his last three outings. “Kind of a little period of growing pains, where I feel like my stuff the last three times out there has possibly been the best all season, and unfortunately I just haven’t had the results,” McClanahan said. “This is a long season. I’m confident in myself and confident in this team.”
Kelly, Tampa Bay’s most reliable setup man this season, entered in the sixth protecting a one-run lead. He surrendered a double to Andy Pages on a first-pitch sinker, then left another sinker up in the zone to Freeman. “He knows I’m probably coming back with a sinker, I left it up, and that’s basically it,” Kelly said. “He put a good swing on it.”
Cash said the tight margins should give the club confidence heading home. “You come out on the wrong side of three one-run ballgames, I’d like to think that — and know that — we’re good enough to find ways to win games,” Cash said. “We just didn’t over the last three days.”
The Rays return to Tropicane Field to open a homestand, looking to reverse a skid that has erased much of the cushion built during a strong start to the season.