Tyler Glasnow leaves early, Rays fall to Braves as slide continues

ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays continue to skid, but Friday night they may have avoided an even bigger loss.

Things looked dire when Tyler Glasnow had to leave the game with cramping in his left arm and legs, and the Braves went on to beat Tampa Bay 2-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 25,025 at Tropicana Field.

It was the season-high sixth straight loss for the Rays, who dropped to 57-34. Tampa Bay had not lost six straight since a seven-game skid in June 2021. It has lost nine of its last 14.

In a battle of the teams with the two best records in baseball, the Braves won their 26th game in their last 30 to improve to 59-28.

But at least the postgame news on Glasnow was encouraging.

While he doesn’t know the cause of the cramping, which he has dealt with at least twice before, Glasnow
said it will not prevent him from missing his next start.

“When I go out and, during the inning and just, like, pushing off the mound, my calves and my left arm really cramps up,” Glasnow said. “I don’t feel fatigued. I don’t feel exhausted. It’s really weird. I’m hydrated, been doing the tests. So I don’t know. It’s just strange.”

The cramps ended what had been a good night for the Rays right-hander.

Glasnow retired six of the first seven batters (Marcell Ozuna reached on a third-strike wild pitch) before giving up a leadoff walk to Orlando Arcia in the third. With one out in the fourth, Brandon Lowe had a sharp ground ball go off his wrist, allowing Matt Olson to reach base. Sean Murphy followed with a 386-foot home run.

“I thought I was going to have to reach out and kind of really extend to get it and ended up covering more ground than I thought I did — or thinking that it was hit harder than it was or whatnot,” Lowe said. “I really wish they could give position players losses, because ‘Glas’ did not deserve a loss (Friday), and it was a tough one to swallow.”

Glasnow allowed two runs, one earned, on two hits over 5⅔ innings. He walked one and struck out eight. He generated 16 swings-and-misses, eight on his slider.

“A good pitcher’s duel, kind of what we anticipated. Two really good pitchers in Tyler and Charlie (Morton),” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “You feel for ‘Glas,’ he was pretty outstanding. That’s three starts in a row that you’re not going to get much better stuff. You’d like to see him get rewarded for it.

“He came out of the ballgame because he just kind of had cramps in both hands, both quads. We’ve seen it before, it kind of creeps in a little bit. He wanted to keep going, but we were 10 more pitches on his outing, so it probably made the most sense (to take him out).”

Elvin Rodriguez, who the Rays acquired from the Tigers and was called up before the game, pitched 3-1/3 perfect innings in relief of Glasnow, striking out five.

Morton, who made 48 starts for the Rays (including the postseason) from 2019-20, held his former teammates to just one run on four hits over 6-1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out six.

“From the side, you could tell Charlie was pretty nasty, had the curveball going, made some adjustments, popped a change-up here and there,” Cash said. “But it’s it’s the same guy that we saw that’s been really, really good for a long time now. And he’s running into an offense that is just not doing things that I think that we’re capable of.”

Wander Franco’s first-inning homer to rightfield was the Rays’ 135th this season, third-most in the majors. It was just their 31st since June 1, however. Since its losing streak started, Tampa Bay’s offense has been held to 16 runs, third-fewest in MLB over that span. It has gone hitless in its last 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position and dropped to 14-16 in one-run games.

“Understand that it’s a slump. I mean, it is what it is. You play some bad baseball,” Lowe said. “If I’m not mistaken, in ‘19, ‘20 and ‘21, we’ve had our rough patches as well. It’s something that happens, and (you) wake up one day and then you remember how to win ballgames.

“Same kind of thing when you’re hitting. Sometimes you just forget how to hit. It’s a humbling game, and it’s just something that we show up (Saturday), act like nothing’s happened. We’re 0-0 and go out there and play our baseball.”

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