Rare Walls Error, More Bullpen Woes Lead to Another Bad Loss For Rays, 6-2 to Reds

The Tampa Bay Rays wasted a brilliant start from Ryan Pepiot, blowing a lead late on an uncharacteristic error by Taylor Walls and another rough night for the bullpen in a 6-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The Rays have lost six straight road games.

Tampa Bay starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot was brilliant early, but the Cincinnati Reds rallied late to take a 6-2 victory. | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

CINCINNATI, Ohio — Ryan Pepiot was dealing. The Tampa Bay pitcher has breezed through five scoreless innings, and was about to get through the sixth with a lead.

With two out and two on, he coaxed a ground ball from Cincinnati Reds left fielder Austin Hays that was going right at Taylor Walls, the best defensive shortstop in baseball according to many metrics.

Inning over, except for one thing. The ball took a crazy hop over Walls' glove and went out to left field, with two runs scoring. It was the start of more brutal baseball for the Rays, whose bullpen got torched again after Pepiot, and the Reds won 6-2.

The Rays have now gone 7-17 since June 26 and are a whopping 10 games behind the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East race. They are now 2.5 games out of the wild-card chase as well.

"Look, 100 times out of 100, you want a ball to Taylor Walls and he makes that play,'' Pepiot said. "It looked like it took a weird hop. It's frustrating.''

Pepiot and Reds starter Andrew Abbott were putting on a show to start the game, with the game still scoreless through five innings and both pitchers allowing just one hit. Pepiot got through five on just 62 pitches.

Yandy Diaz got the Rays on the board in the top of the sixth with a home run to center field to lead off the inning.

Abbott was done through six and the Rays quickly got to reliever Graham Ashcraft. Jose Caballero drew a one-out walk, went to third on a Jonny DeLuca single and scored when pinch-hitter Josh Lowe singled to left to tie the game at 2-2.

But then the Rays bullpen imploded again, which has been a common theme during this 24-game rough patch. Bryan Baker came in to pitch the seventh, and walked two batters. He got to a 1-2 count on Matt McClain when he got a cramp in his calf — and wasn't able to continue.

Garrett Cleavinger was already warm in the bullpen, so he came in and promptly threw three straight balls to load the bases. He went to a 3-2 count on Elly De La Cruz, and he blooped a single into center to give the Reds a 4-2 lead.

They got two more in the eighth off of Rays reliever Kevin Kelly, who's really been struggling lately. He gave up four singles and the Reds blew it open for their second straight win in the series.

Anything that can go bad for the Rays seems to be happening right now. Walls, who takes defeats hard, felt like he did everything right on the ground ball that got past him. The bad hop was a lot, he said.

"Yeah, the hop. I know how to play the game at short and you always have to be aggressive and you always have to attack the ball,'' Walls said. "I guess from a viewer's perspective you could ask why didn't you sit back on it and get an easier hop. The ball was hit hard, but you can't play shortstop trying to be patient and wait on the ball. You have to come attack hops, and I've attacked hops like that a thousand times. I'm lucky to have my teeth to be honest. That hop shouldn't have happened.

"(Pepiot) did an an amazing job. It's just one of those scenarios in the sixth where he made the right pitch and we got the exact ball we wanted to get. It's just the way the chips have been falling. It's just unfortunate that the ball took the hop that it did, and then two runners scored. It just feels like that's how it's been going lately.''

The bullpen disasters are also how it's been going lately. The Rays, a league-worst 2-9 in their past 11 road games, have now lost their fifth straight series, the first time that's happened since the end of the 2022 season. They are 6-14 in July — and had a lead in nine of the 14 losses. They've had a lead in the sixth inning or later in five of those losses.

Cleavinger had two of the eight Tampa Bay walks, which is out of character for him as well. Things just seem to be piling on the Rays right now.

"(Baker) put me in a good spot, and you come in there 1-2 and make one good pitch and you're out of there,'' Cleavinger said. "You know he's going to be aggressive with two strikes and you don't want to give anything too good to hit. But I would have liked to have been around the zone a little bit more.

"You never see that with Taylor, right. The ball's really just not bouncing our way right now. We're not catching any breaks right now, but I know this group can fight through it.''

The Rays are 53-52 on the season, and it's the first time they've been within one game of .500 since June 4. They are on a stretch of 19 of 22 games being on the road, and this 0-2 start isn't good. They've now lost six straight road games and are 3-12 away from Tampa since June 26, the date they had the best road record (19-12) in all of baseball.

The two teams meet again on Sunday, with Shane Baz taking on Brady Singer. The game starts at 1:40 p.m. ET, and then the Rays head to New York for a critical four-game series with the New York Yankees.