ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays not only lost 6-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, but the team is also suffering injuries to a few key players.
Rays all-star left fielder Randy Arozarena exited after the fourth inning with tightness in his right quadriceps. He legged out a double in the first and scored the game's first run on Harold Ramírez's RBI single.
Manager Kevin Cash said the Cuban-Mexican outfielder is day-to-day and the team will continue to monitor his injury.
Cash also revealed second baseman Brandon Lowe will be sidelined for four to six weeks with with a right patella fracture in his knee after fouling a pitch off of it on Thursday against the Los Angeles Angels – which will rule him out for the postseason.
The team announced before the game that outfielder Luke Raley will be placed on the 10-day injured list with a cervical strain, while another player to keep an eye on is pitcher Jason Adam, who left Friday's game after possibly reaggravating his oblique injury.
Cash said Adam's initial injury report was "fairly good," but he will get a clearer status on whether he will miss any game time on Saturday.
“We’ve done a tremendous job of being resilient,” Cash said. “We’ll be as tested as ever with some of the guys we’re losing.”
Also something to note — Tampa Bay center fielder Jose Siri missed his 10th straight game with a broken right hand.
With the playoffs just weeks away, Rays fans will certainly hope the injured players can recover quickly and safely in time before it's do-or-die baseball in October.
On the brighter side of things, Tampa Bay made a bold move calling up its best prospect Junior Caminero from Double-A Montgomery.
The 20-year-old has been one of the fastest-rising prospects in baseball this year. He started the season in High-A ball with Bowling Green, quickly advancing to Montgomery. When you combine the two stints, he's hitting .324 with 31 home runs.
With the Rays just 1.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the AL East title, all hands will be on deck now and heading into the postseason.
Despite the loss, the Rays still have a comfortable lead in the wild-card race.
Tampa Bay's next game for its series against Toronto is scheduled at 4:10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23 at Tropicana Field. For ticket information, click here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.