Devil Rays' skid reaches 11 games

Ouch!

The home team is getting pounded lately.

James Shields and Scott Kazmir have continued to pitch pretty well, but the offense has recently managed to always produce fewer runs than the other team has.

I think that B. J. Upton has been the offensive catalyst this year. Even with home-run power spread through the starting lineup, the teams misses its best for-average batter. Upton has been sidelined for weeks with a quadriceps strain.
Pretty much every batter in the lineup has seen his batting average shrink during the losing streak--even Dionner Navarro, who was batting .177 when he reached base tonight on a slow roller. It was probably ruled a hit, though a good throw from the first baseman to the pitcher would have put Navarro out.

The play was worth mentioning because Navarro ran into Josh Beckett, who was covering first on the play, and was injured to the point that he left the game.

Beckett's a pretty big guy, the the collision didn't look like much. My best guess was that Navarro's nose met a bony portion of Beckett's shoulder.

Against the Marlins a few weeks ago, Navarro got caught in the neck with a pitch that bounced on the way to the plate. Navarro's had some hard luck with odd injuries recently, but whatever the case his batting average is absolutely horrible. The Rays sought out Navarro via trade because they liked his bat. He was seen as having good bat control--able to advance runners and such. It looks as if he will substantially underachieve the team's expectations this year unless he has a remarkable second half of the season.

Writing about the Rays' losing streak is intended to enable them to win their next game, of course.