Tim Beckham: Beckham’s early homer sends Rays past HOU

The bullpen was charged with protecting the slimmest of leads and could not finish the job.

The Astros built a 5-2 lead before a two-run homer by Cabrera got the Tigers within a run in the seventh.

“I like to pitch anywhere, but I don’t know”, he said when asked about his home dominance. “I missed the location on it, and he didn’t miss the pitch”.

“He showed me a couple of changeups that at-bat”, Beckham said of Kazmir. Will Harris and Luke Gregerson combined to allow zero runs and zero hits over three innings of relief. But Odorizzi recovered with a pair of crucial strikeouts of Carlos Correa and Jed Lowrie, limiting the damage to one run and setting up a Rays comeback. He was greeted with a pinch-hit RBI single by John Jaso to leave the Rays up 6-2.

Manager Kevin Cash doesn’t believe Tuesday’s performances by McGee and Boxberger are cause for concern.

The right-hander will be making his first career start against the Astros.

“I think it’s just a rough patch we’re hitting right now, ” Brad Boxberger said after allowing Gonzalez’s homer. “The trajectory looked like it was a homer from the get-go”.

Keuchel didn’t get any support in St. Petersburg on July 11, when a three-run second inning was enough to put him on the hook for a 3-0 loss. “This team did not”.

Boxberger – whose nine losses are the most of any reliever in the majors – was working for the first time since Wednesday but said there was “no rust”. “I left it over the middle, and he sold out on it”. “It’s part of it. Everyone goes through it. It’s just a matter of how quick we can turn it around”.

Tampa took Game 1 of this series in Houston by a score of 9-2, and the Rays appear to have a favorable matchup here in Game 2 tonight.

Casali’s towering homer tied it at 1-all with one out in the fifth. Kazmir was charged with six runs on nine hits and a trio of free passes through 5.1 innings with Oliver Perez allowing three runs in the 9th.

“First two innings were really bad”, Odorizzi said.

Gattis reached on Beckham’s second error of the night with two outs in the sixth and Luis Valbuena walked to chase Ramirez. A lot of times he gets people because they can’t quite catch up or they expand on the fastball.

Their streak of at least 10 hits in a game ended at five.

And it’s not a coincidence that these starts are coming as Verlander gets deeper into the season, a season that started off on the wrong foot when he spent the first two months on the disabled list with a right triceps strain.

Rays: OF Desmond Jennings, who came off the 60-day DL on Friday, got a day off. Cash said he was fine, but that he wanted to give him a breather after playing four straight games after such a long layoff following arthroscopic knee surgery.