Tampa Bay Rays Lose Crucial Game to Minnesota Twins

Even with the Orioles losing 5-2 against the Cardinals, the Tampa Bay Rays failed to capitalize Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins.

Tampa fell 3-2 to the Twins, ending their four-game win streak.

"That's a bad hop."

Might be understating a little bit, Dewayne! pic.twitter.com/LPAq3xV3ys

— Bally Sports Sun: Rays (@BallyRays) September 13, 2023

What Went Down

As seen above, Yandy Diaz took an unfortunate bounce to the groin area off of a foul ball in the fifth inning. This would lead to Diaz leaving the game with a “testicular contusion.” On the bright side, the injury appears to not be severe as Rays manager Kevin Cash said the player “should be fine.”

The Twins opened the scoring in the bottom of the third with a solo homerun by Edouard Julien. But the Rays answered with back-to-back single run innings, Brandon Lowe and Rene Pinto being the scorers.

Up to the seventh inning, Tampa played decent and pitcher Zack Littell played great. He had eight strikeouts, no walks, and held the Twins to just one run. But Littell faced a bad break when he threw a pitch to Willi Castro and the Minnesota Left Fielder homered the ball to center field, bringing in Max Kepler.

Tampa was unable to answer in the eighth or the nineth, leading to Minnesota winning 3-2.

Rubber match in Minneapolis tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/SLIQmBvCOZ

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) September 13, 2023

The Rays’ Race for First Place

The Baltimore Orioles have a record of 91-53 and are on top of the AL East Division.

Three games back, the Rays are sitting at 89-57. With 16 games remaining in the regular season, the Rays need to act now if they want a shot at taking the division.

Instead of leaving things up to chance, Tampa will have the opportunity to take control of their season. Tomorrow, the Rays will travel to Baltimore to start their four-game series with the Orioles. Being three games behind, the Rays will most likely need to sweep to keep their division title hopes alive.

But that’s tomorrow.

The Rays will take on the Twins this afternoon at 1:10 p.m. With the series tied at one a piece, Tampa will look to not just win the series but to also gain an edge heading into their series with Baltimore.

Coverage starts here at 1 p.m.