Rays drop opener to Rangers, continuing their 'weird' streak in Arlington

ARLINGTON -- Globe Life Field has been unkind to the Rays since it opened in 2020, their own house of horrors deep in the heart of Texas.

This is, of course, where they lost the neutral-site World Series to the Dodgers in six games. They haven’t won a game here since June 2, 2022. Overall, they own a 6-14 record in this ballpark, and they’ve dropped 10 of their 14 matchups with the Rangers here.

Ultimately, as manager Kevin Cash said Friday afternoon, “The reason it’s tough is because they’ve had quality teams over here.”

But unusual stuff tends to happen to the Rays under this retractable roof, too. And their 5-2 loss to the Rangers in their first road game of the season on Friday night was suitably strange and fittingly frustrating.

Starter Zack Littell simply couldn’t have been much better for six of his seven innings on the mound, but a quick-fire rally by the Rangers in the third inning was enough to leave him saddled with his second loss of the season.

“Just a really weird outing overall,” said Littell, who gave up five runs -- four of them in the third -- while completing seven innings on only 82 pitches.

“We preach strike-throwing and attacking,” Cash said. “He did that for the better part of the game and didn't get the results that you generally get when you pitch that way.”

And the Rays had no answers for Rangers starter Tyler Mahle, who held them to one hit and two walks while striking out five over five innings. They eventually ended Texas’ 25-inning scoreless streak, but it took two hits and run-scoring wild pitches by two different relievers in the seventh inning.

“We've got to find a way to score more runs,” Cash said.

The Rays have lost seven straight games in Arlington and nine of their last 10 against the Rangers. Littell started their series finale here last July, a lopsided 13-2 defeat in which he gave up seven runs on nine hits over only four innings.

He said Wednesday he was “still trying to forget about” that start, and it looked like the performance was well in the past when he breezed through two perfect innings on 15 pitches to begin Friday’s series opener.

But then came the third inning, when the Rangers’ aggressiveness and Littell’s relentless strike-throwing worked in Texas’ favor. It was the first time Littell allowed four runs in a single inning since … his last start in this building, when he surrendered six runs in the fourth.

“They were aggressive the whole game, obviously. That third inning, I made some bad pitches and they hit them,” he said. “It was definitely a weird outing. … Frustrating, but part of the game.”

Five straight Rangers picked up hits to begin the inning. Marcus Semien made Littell work the hardest, finishing a 10-pitch at-bat with an RBI single to center field. (That’s more pitches than Littell threw in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings.) The other six hitters who came to the plate that inning saw only 12 pitches combined, but they made the most of them.

“They got big hits when they needed to,” Cash said. “When guys got in scoring position, their at-bats were the best of the game.”

Josh Smith led off the third by smacking an 0-2 splitter to left field. Littell tried to pick him off at first base, but his errant throw got by Jonathan Aranda and allowed Smith to reach second. That put him in position to score on a Kyle Higashioka double that just grazed the left-field line.

Up came Leody Taveras, who slapped an RBI single up the middle, then stole second and third. Meanwhile, Littell fell behind Semien, 3-0, before Semien fouled off six straight secondary pitches. Littell painted the outside corner with a perfectly executed fastball, but Semien swatted it to center for an RBI single to make it a 3-0 game.

The inning only lasted four pitches after that -- one for a Corey Seager single, two for a Wyatt Langford sacrifice fly that center fielder Jonny DeLuca dove to snag, one for a Joc Pederson double-play grounder.

That began a stretch of seven straight hitters that Littell retired in order. He worked around a pair of walks in the sixth, ending a career-long 28 2/3-inning streak without a free pass, then surrendered a solo homer to Smith in the seventh.

“When I executed tonight, I got outs. That was kind of what it came down to. When I made mistakes, they hit them,” Littell said. “If you're going to be in the zone, especially at that percent clip, then you just have to expect to get hit a little bit. And theirs happened to all come in a row.”