Rays have quiet night in another loss at Rangers, see division lead shrink to 3

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Sep 3, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ARLINGTON, Texas — With the potential to clinch a playoff berth on this eight-day road trip, the Rays are getting lots of questions about what’s ahead as they openly eye an American League East title and a deep postseason run.

But the last few days are a reminder that they first have to take care of the present.

After dropping two of three to the downtrodden Mets at home, the Rays on Thursday opened a four-game series at their house of horrors with a 6-0 loss to the Rangers. It was their 10th straight defeat at Globe Life Field and 13th in 17 regular-season games; they dropped four of the six in the 2020 neutral-site World Series.

The loss not only stalled the countdown to a clubhouse celebration — which, if a series of outcomes involving multiple teams had lined up, could have happened as soon as Sunday — but dropped their American League-leading record to 83-57 and cut their division lead to three games over the Yankees, who were idle Thursday and open a series Friday at the pesky Padres.

The Rays couldn’t do anything offensively against Rangers starter Cal Quantrill, managing only two singles over seven innings. Quantrill was similarly effective during a July 28 start at Tropicana Field.

Those singles came in back-to-back at-bats by Nick Fortes and Yandy Diaz with two outs in the third but Chandler Simpson, moved to the No. 2 spot for the night, grounded out.

The next 10 Rays went down in order. They mounted their only other threat — if you can call it that — in the seventh against Quantrill, as Jonathan Aranda drew a one-out walk and Cedric Mullins did the same with two outs. But Jorge Mateo flied out to center.

The Rays were hoping for an efficient and effective lengthy outing from starter Shane McClanahan given the extra innings the bullpen had to cover Wednesday in Griffin Jax’s abbreviated return to the rotation.

McClanahan did that in posting zeros the first three innings, then ran into some trouble.

In the fourth, he allowed a one-out double to former Gators star Wyatt Langford, then a two-out RBI single to Justin Foscue.

The fifth was worse, as the Rangers scored three. The first run came kind of quietly, as Logan O’Hoppe led off with a single, moved to second on a bunt and scored on a two-out single by Ezequiel Duran. The next two were plenty loud, as Corey Seager laced a 2-2 change-up 403 feet and over the right-center-field fence for a two-run homer.

McClanahan ended up working five innings on 72 pitches, allowing the four runs. Casey Legumina handled the next three, allowing the Rangers another two runs in the eighth.

Simpson, one of the Rays’ most dynamic players, was removed from the game in the middle of the eighth, though with no apparent injury issue.