Drew Rasmussen's rough start puts Rays in bad place in loss to Angels
All the good vibes from Friday's return home, energetic and shirt-waving Tropicana Field crowd, late-inning rally and dramatic win to end a season-high four-game losing streak disappeared quickly on Saturday afternoon.
Rays starter Drew Rasmussen struck out the first Angels batter, then allowed a single, two walks and a grand slam to recent call-up Wade Meckler.
The Rays never could make up that four-run deficit, and the Angels eventually broke the game open by scoring seven in the ninth.
The ugly 14-3 loss was the Rays' fifth in six games, dropping them to 35-20. It was just their second under the tilted roof since April 21, following a franchise-best 16-1 run at home.
Rasmussen, coming off seven shutout innings May 24 in New York, doesn't often put the Rays in a hole, and certainly not that way, as the grand slam was the first he has allowed.
"Very unusual and uncharacteristic for him," manager Kevin Cash said. "He sets the bar really high, and he is so consistent and so good."
Rasmussen said the issue Saturday was mechanical.
"Just a little quick down the mound, and then the arm just could never be on time," he said. "You were watching misfires high, arm-side, down, kind of in every direction. It is frustrating that in the moment you just can't feel the adjustments that need to be made and the entire inning has to unfold the way it does.
"Walks and homers, I feel like that's what that offense does. And when you give them two free passes and then they hit the ball out of the yard, it completely changes that game from the very beginning. And it's just one of those things that once you're down four, it's just so hard to claw back in that game."
Adding to the frustration, the Rays wasted the couple of chances they had to catch up.
Yandy Diaz opened the bottom of the first with a leadoff homer for the second straight day - the 24th of his career and 11th round-tripper of the season. But the Rays failed to convert after loading the bases later in the inning, as Ben Williamson struck out and Nick Fortes lined out.
After scoring twice in the fifth to cut the Angels' lead to 6-3, the Rays had another bases-loaded opportunity after three two-out walks in the sixth and top RBI man Jonathan Aranda up. Aranda laced a liner to right, but Jo Adell made a sliding catch. For the night, Tampa Bay was 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on.
"We just were missing the big hit," catcher Nick Fortes said. "That's kind of what we live on is timely hitting, and (Saturday) we just didn't have it. It was just one of those days."
It really became one of thosedays in the ninth, when call-up pitcher Andrew Wantz and Cole Sulser, just off the injured list, teamed to allow seven runs on a combination of two walks, two hit batters, a passed ball, two homers and two other hits. The 14 runs were the most the Rays have allowed this season.
"It got ugly," Cash said. "Kind of a sloppy game, sloppy loss."
There were some odd moments along the way:
• Before first pitch, injured Rays pitchers Steven Wilson and Manny Rodriguez; and the Angels' Brent Suter, who wasn't pitching Saturday; were ejected for one of those silly anthem standoffs that linger too long.
• In the top of the seventh, Rays reliever Ian Seymour threw a wild pitch and raced toward the plate to try to prevent Zach Neto from scoring. He failed but collided hard with Neto, who had to be helped off the field.
"Just tried to put a tag down, sort of jump over him, and I guess my butt cheek hit him in the back," Seymour said. "Looking back at it, there's certainly no intention there. He's a great player, and I hope he's OK."
• And there was a tense moment in the bottom of the seventh after Sam Bachman threw an 0-1 pitch up and in to Junior Caminero, who got into an exchange with Grayson Rodriguez in the Angels dugout. Players from both sides took a few steps toward home plate, but calm prevailed. Umpires issued warnings to both teams afterward.
Caminero, via team interpreter Kevin Vera, said the situation was "a misunderstanding" stemming from the Angels thinking he was staring down Bachman, and there wasn't going to be any kind of confrontation.
"I heard people yelling at me, but I didn't know exactly who it was," Caminero said. "I just was telling people, ‘Hey, I wasn't looking at the pitcher. I wasn't making any direct looks or anything.' So that was that. I was just trying to calm things down."
Since Rasmussen had thrown seven innings in his previous outing for the first time since before his third major elbow surgery in July 2023, Cash said the Rays took the opportunity to "freshen him up" by pulling him after the fourth inning. He threw 70 pitches, including 36 in the first.
The outing ended his franchise-record streak of 48 straight regular-season starts (going back to April 30, 2023) of not allowing more than four runs. He was one of seven traditional starters in the modern era (since 1900) to go that long.
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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 8:00 PM.