TAMPA -- Rays closer Pete Fairbanks stood in front of his locker on Saturday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field, searching for answers and frustrated beyond measure.
Fairbanks had just given up the decisive run in the ninth inning of the Rays’ 3-2 loss to the Guardians, a defeat that dropped Tampa Bay (71-71) back to .500, a half-game behind Cleveland (71-70) in the American League Wild Card race and three games behind Seattle (74-68) for the final Wild Card spot.
The result was, obviously, frustrating. So was the fact that Fairbanks has been charged with two losses and a blown save in his last seven appearances. And so was the way it all unfolded Saturday night.
“I wouldn't say that I'm lacking the confidence. I'm just waiting for the break,” Fairbanks said. “I'm legitimately at a loss, just waiting for something to flip the scales, because I'm letting down 25 people when I need to be bringing them [up]. And so that [stuff] weighs on you, and it is extraordinarily frustrating when it happens how it happened tonight.”
The Guardians’ rally began with a leadoff single by Daniel Schneemann. Fairbanks went to a full count against pinch-hitter Brayan Rocchio, then fired a 96.4 mph fastball that he believed to be strike three before catcher Nick Fortes appeared to throw out Schneemann at second. But the pitch was called ball four, putting two runners on with none out.
“It's a big change to go from two outs and nobody on to first-and-second, no-out where you can [have a] sac bunt and get an infield single, and then put a winning run in,” Fairbanks said. “I thought you can't walk him, but if you walk him on a strike, then what can you do?”
Cleveland capitalized, as Bo Naylor dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance both runners. Fairbanks struck out C.J. Kayfus to move one out away from escaping unscathed. But Steven Kwan hit a grounder to the left side of the infield, far enough away from shortstop and top prospect Carson Williams to reach safely for a go-ahead RBI single.
Tampa Bay went down in order against Cade Smith, so that run -- the seventh Fairbanks has allowed in his last seven outings, but the first to score on something other than a home run -- turned out to be enough. Fairbanks and manager Kevin Cash said there are no issues with the closer’s stuff; he’s just hit a tough stretch.
“He's just not getting the results that he's wanting to get, that we need him to get right now,” Cash said. “No margin of error when he comes in the game, but that's kind of the life of the role that he's in, and teams are finding ways to score runs.”
Of course, the Rays could have given Fairbanks a much greater margin for error by scoring a few more runs. And they had chances to do so in the previous two innings, only to run their way out of both opportunities.
With two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh, Williams came to the plate to pinch-hit for Tristan Gray. Williams immediately fell behind lefty reliever Erik Sabrowski, 0-2, at which point Jake Mangum took off from third in an attempt to steal home.
Sabrowski calmly tossed the ball to Naylor, who had plenty of time to easily tag out Mangum, ending the inning.
“Well, I appreciate the free out,” Sabrowski told reporters.
Mangum noted that he wasn’t being held on third base, so his lead took him nearly halfway to the plate. When the count got to 0-2, with the rally one strike away from ending anyway, Mangum figured it was a good time to try it. It was Mangum’s decision, but Cash said he “certainly supported it.”
“Sometimes when you start a break home like that you can get a balk, a lot of different things that could have happened,” Mangum said. “The result was not in our favor.”
The Rays ended the eighth inning with an out on the bases as well, as Yandy Díaz -- who has stolen three bases all season -- was caught trying to steal second with Brandon Lowe at the plate. Díaz said first-base coach Michael Johns had timed reliever Hunter Gaddis’ delivery at 1.7 seconds that inning, giving him time to advance another 90 feet, but he was slightly quicker on the pitch in question.
In games like this, even a tenth of a second can make a huge difference.
“He said that if [Gaddis] was doing 1.7, that if I could take a good lead, [I should] go. That's what I did, and that's what happened,” Díaz said through interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. “He was faster, and he got me out.”