Rays-Mariners: Despite Losing Series, Rays Gain Ground

For the Tampa Bay Rays, it's a case of "what might have been." The Rays gained more ground on the wildcard leading Boston Red Sox, thanks to the Sox abysmal performance in the Big Apple, but failed to capitalize fully only winning one out of three against the Seattle Mariners.

The one that really hurt the worst was game one of the series. Tampa Bay built a 5-1 lead heading in to the bottom of the seventh inning thanks to some powerful hitting by struggling slugger Pat Burrell. The wheels began to fall off starter Jeff Niemann, who had been dominant yet again for six strong innings.

In the seventh, Ken Griffey, Jr. led off with a solo home run to cut the lead to 5-2. Adrian Beltre singled and then Franklin Guiterrez struck out. Jack Wilson followed with a single to put men on first and third. In came Grant Balfour to relieve Niemann and face Rob Johnson. Johnson lined a shot to right field and score Beltre, cutting the lead to 5-3.

Balfour fell apart, hitting the next batter to load the bases before giving way to Brian Shouse. Ichiro would slap a single to center scoring two runs to tie the game. Shouse and Dan Wheeler would get the Rays out of trouble and into the eighth.

The score remained tied until the top of the 11th when Jason Bartlett's home run gave the Rays a lead. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, the normally dependable JP Howell couldn't hold it, walking Guiterrez, getting two outs, then serving up a meatball to Ryan Langerhans giving the Mariners a walk-off victory.

Tampa Bay bounced back in game two, getting runs batted in from each of their top six hitters while finally giving run support to the snake bitten James Shields. Shields went only five innings giving up four runs and eight hits. His teammates would account for ten runs in the 10-4 victory. Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena both went yard for Tampa Bay.

Game Three was a disappointing effort all around for the Rays. Scott Kazmir coming off two solid efforts was again "The Bad Kaz," getting shelled for seven earned runs in just four and a third innings of work.

Newly signed pitcher Jeff Bennett would walk in a run in the the fifth, then gave up a grand slam to Russell Branyan in the sixth to essentially put the game away for the M's.

The final tally was an 11-4 loss and a series loss for the Rays.

Had they swept the Mariners, the Rays would have found themselves in first place for the American League wildcard. Instead, they still picked up a game (now one and half games back) but watched as fellow chaser, Texas, tied up the Red Sox for the playoff berth. In addition, they may have breathed life into yet another contender as the Mariners shaved off two games from their deficit to pull within four and half games of the co-leaders.

The AL East may be out of reach for Tampa Bay with an eight and half game deficit and only 51 games left.

The Rays continue on their West Coast swing against the slumping LA Angels, who have dropped four of their last six.