Rays use big inning to top Padres – NBC 7 San Diego
If you're going to beat the Tampa Bay Rays in 2023 one thing you cannot do is give them any sliver of an advantage. The Padres learned that the hard way in a 6-2 loss at Petco Park on Friday night.
In the 5th inning the Rays had a 2-0 lead when Taylor Walls hit a liner to right-centerfield off Yu Darvish. It was a tough play but a ball that Gold Glover Trent Grisham usually catches. This time it glanced off his glove. For just a moment, Grisham let the disappointment get to him. Trent picked the ball up and hesitated to look to the infield.
Walls never stopped running. He beat Grisham's throw to 2nd for what was ruled a leadoff double. Had Grisham gotten the ball in immediately he likely would have had an out, or at least held Walls to a single. Darvish would proceed to give up a single that scored Walls but would have only advanced him to 2nd base, then get a ground ball that would have been a double play and a pop-up on the infield.
That would have been the 3rd out and kept it a 2-0 game. Instead, it gave Randy Arozarena a chance to bat with two outs and two on. He lined a 3-run homer into the left field seats to give the Rays a 6-0 lead that the Friars were unable to overcome.
Those are the kinds of things that are keeping the Padres from living up to their immense potential. Nelson Cruz hit a solo home run in the 7th inning and Xander Bogaerts had an RBI double to score Fernando Tatis Jr. in the 8th that, had the Rays big inning been avoided, would have tied the game 2-2. San Diego still made it interesting in the bottom of the 9th, loading the bases with one out to bring up Tatis Jr. as the potential tying run. He had two hits on the night but this time grounded into a game-ending double play.
Blake Snell tries to even the series on Saturday when he takes the mound against his former team while Tampa Bay will send out Zach Eflin, a former Padres farmhand.
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