Rays seal first losing season since ’07

BOSTON (AP) — Tampa Bay right-hander Jake Odorizzi has something to think about the entire offseason. So do his Rays teammates.

Odorizzi couldn’t make it out of the fourth inning and the Rays fell to the Boston Red Sox 11-3 on Wednesday night, ensuring their first losing season since 2007.

Odorizzi (11-13) allowed five runs on seven hits, walking three and striking out three in three-plus innings. In all, six Rays pitchers allowed 10 hits and nine walks.

“It’s a terrible way to end the season,” he said. “I’ve got to take it into the offseason as motivation. It kind of overshadows a year that’s been up and down and I made a lot of strides. This will stick into my head until next spring training.”

Tampa Bay, which had six straight winning seasons every year since it made the World Series in 2008, will now finish under .500.

“It’s no fun to be in this position. I don’t like it. We don’t like it, but it also speaks to the motivation of the group to get back to where we had been,” manager Joe Maddon said. “For us it’s not acceptable. We expect to be in the playoffs on an annual basis and expect to compete for the World Series on an annual basis, and it did not happen.”

Six Tampa Bay pitchers combined for nine walks, two wild pitches and gave up 10 hits.

“This is one of those blips on the pitching radar that we didn’t see coming,” Maddon said. “Jake had a hard time, the relievers had a hard time, too. It was beyond them beating us up with hits. We just walked too many.”

Anthony Ranaudo pitched seven strong innings, and Garin Cecchini hit his first major league home run to help the fifth-place Boston Red Sox beat the fourth-place Rays.

The Red Sox twice batted around, scoring five runs in the fourth inning and four more in the sixth, when they drew five walks — three with the bases loaded.

Ranaudo (4-3) allowed two runs on six hits and a walk, striking out two to snap a three-game losing streak. The victory was the 69th of the season for the defending AL East and World Series champions, who need one more win to beat their total from 2012 — their only season under Bobby Valentine.

It was 2-all in the bottom of the fourth with two on and nobody out when Mookie Betts singled to load the bases and chase Odorizzi. Xander Bogaerts singled to drive in two runs and Daniel Nava doubled to bring home two more. Brandon Gomes got the next two batters before walking Cecchini on a wild pitch that moved Nava to third.

Another wild pitch allowed Nava to score, and then Rusney Castillo walked before Gomes got Bryce Brentz on a grounder to end the inning.

MISSTEP

Rays OF Wil Myers had an embarrassing moment when he grounded out leading off the fifth. He slipped on the bag and tumbled, face-first down the right-field line. “That’s the kind of night it was,” Maddon said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rays: SS Yunel Escobar, who sprained his left knee, was sent back to Florida for an MRI. He will be out the remainder of the season. … Ryan Hanigan was in the original lineup at catcher, but he was a little sore after hitting something off his toe in Tuesday night’s game. … During the fourth inning, C Curt Casali took a foul ball of his mask and left the game and was replaced by Jose Molina. Maddon said after that’s “he’s done for the season.”

Red Sox: DH David Ortiz rested a sore left wrist. … 3B Will Middlebrooks missed his second straight game after spraining his right hand during batting practice on Tuesday. … 1B Mike Napoli missed his sixth game in a row with lingering problems in his finger, back and toe.

UP NEXT

The teams wrap up the three-game series on Thursday when Allen Webster (4-3) takes the mound against Rays RHP Jeremy Hellickson (1-4). Then the Red Sox say goodbye to their World Series championship defense — and to Derek Jeter as well — with a season-ending three-game series against the New York Yankees.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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