There’s no way to sugarcoat it. The Rays bullpen is struggling mightily as of late.
Ryan Pepiot delivered, tossing six innings of two-run baseball while striking out six to keep Tampa Bay in the fight.
Or so we thought.
Edwin Uceta came in relief in the seventh, and with two outs and a runner on third base, Colt Keith delivered the proverbial dagger into the Rays’ eighth loss in their last 11 games.
Jonathan Aranda got the scoring going as he homered in the first inning to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.
The other Rays run came via Josh Lowe, as he singled in Aranda to extend the lead at two in the third.
The Tigers would score four unanswered runs from a Spencer Torkelson home run, the Keith home run, and a Keith RBI single.
Tomorrow’s start for the getaway day of the series was pushed back to 5:10 PM in anticipation of inclement weather.