Lance McCullers

McCullers has bittersweet return home in Astros' loss to Rays

Published Jul. 13, 2015 1:54 a.m. ET

foxsports

Rookie Lance McCullers, Jr. took the field against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday at Tropicana Field to pitch in front of fans, friends and family members. The Houston Astros' right-hander, who went to Jesuit High School nearby and grew up in the Tampa area, struck out the first three hitters he faced but wound up allowing four runs in six innings.

He wasn't able to help the Astros snap their funk, as they lost their sixth consecutive game and fell out of first place. The ineffective outing confused McCullers, as he told MLB.com's Brian McTaggart that he felt pretty good on the mound: "I felt good all day. I think it was some of the best stuff I've had all year, so I'm disappointed that four runs came across. I was hoping that three runs today would have been enough, should have been enough. But that's just baseball."

His manager, A.J. Hinch, agreed that he did have pretty good stuff on the afternoon but that it just didn't work out for whatever reason: "Lance was great. It's probably the best stuff he's had in a while, if not the entire time. I think his complete game was probably his best outing of the season for him, but this was close. I thought he was sharp. The disappointing back-to-back-walks -- he had a batter 0-2 and then threw nine straight balls and ended up biting him with a couple of runs. They scored four runs on four hits against him. That's very uncommon to get that production out of that. Lance showed up today and did his job."

When you're struggling like the Astros are, games like Sunday's happen. And even though McCullers took the loss, his family and friends no doubt enjoyed watching their hometown hero on the mound.

(h/t MLB.com)

Get more from Lance McCullers Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Lance McCullers

Houston Astros

Major League Baseball