Rays lose Griffin Jax to injury, game to Orioles for 3rd straight loss

BALTIMORE - The Rays lost a third straight game on Tuesday, and an ugly one at that, making three errors in falling to the Orioles 6-1.

But the bigger concern may be the loss of starting pitcher Griffin Jax, who was drilled in the lower back by a 107.2 mph line drive during the second inning. He stayed in to throw 22 more pitches to get three outs, then left the game with what the team said was a back contusion.

It was a bad night overall for the Rays.

• Shortstop Taylor Walls was scratched from the lineup about an hour before first pitch due to left hamstring tightness and replaced by Oliver Dunn, who made his first big-league appearance at shortstop.

• They hadn't lost three times in a row in more than a month - April 19-21 - and had lost only one game by more than two runs in that span.

• The three errors - plus a passed ball by Hunter Feduccia - followed Monday's four-error outing, their worst defensive effort in five years.

• And they got shut down again by ex-Ray Shane Baz, who struck out nine in allowing one run over seven innings, six days after holding them to one run over six innings.

The Rays took a 1-0 lead in the first, as Chandler Simpson led off with a double and scored on a one-out single by Jonathan Aranda, who posted his American League-leading 41st RBI.

But the Orioles took advantage of some Rays sloppiness - and a fortunate or unfortunate bounce, depending on your perspective - to score three in the second.

Samuel Basallo started the rally with a slow roller that Jax misplayed.

Leody Taveras then drilled the liner that struck Jax, who went to the ground and was in obvious pain. He was attended to by the head athletic trainer, got up after a few minutes, threw one warmup pitch and indicated he could stay in.

After Jeremiah Jackson singled to load the bases and Colton Cowser struck out, the Rays got a bad break.

Blaze Alexander rolled a ball up the middle that second baseman Richie Palacios was positioned to field and turn an inning-ending double play.

But the ball hit the base and Palacios couldn't get a handle on it to even get one out. That allowed Basallo to score and set up the Orioles for two more runs, which they got on a Jackson Holliday single and a Taylor Ward sacrifice fly.

Jax didn't go out for the third inning, and the Rays needed to use three more pitchers to finish the game - Garrett Cleavinger (in his first appearance since May 17), Trevor Martin (who gave up a three-run homer in the fifth to Basallo) and Craig Kimbrel (who was signed earlier Tuesday).

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