Rays 2 Astros 3: This offense is depressing

The funniest, and for Rays fans only fun part of this game came in the first inning.

The Houston starter was Yusei Kikuchi, who joined the Astros at the trade deadline, seen by the baseball world as the sign that the Astros were “all in” (or sort of all in) on competing for a Wild Card slot this year.

And the the hitter, with one man already on base, was Dylan Carlson, who somehow ended up on the Rays after the swirl of trade deadline activity, seen by the baseball world as one of many signs that the Rays were not trying to compete this year.

So of course Carlson took Kikuchi deep to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.

And then of course the Rays offense went to sleep.

They struck out fourteen times, eight times in a row during one stretch. Despite having several chances — they did have a total of five hits, five walks and two hit batsmen — they couldn’t score another run.

Fans roll their eyes at the pathetic batting performances of Taylor Walls and Alex Jackson, and for good reason: we are willing to concede some offense for high level defense, but many National League pitchers could have outhit these guys.

But I’m going to save my ire for a few other guys. If Johnny DeLuca and even Josh Lowe, who are not playing high value defensive positions, were league average for outfielders this offense would look completely different.

Yes, Morel, whose defense came with a warning label, committed two costly errors, but fellas, you got to hit the ball!

Bright spots? Well somehow Jose Siri ended up playing first base, which is pretty funny.

And Shane Baz gave a solid performance, wriggling out of some jams and pitching a strong if not overpowering 6 innings. Mr. Bigge looks like the real deal, too, or at least he’s pitched two very nice innings.