Rays, Poche Blow Lead in 9th, Fall to Brewers Again For Season Sweep
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MILWAUKEE, Wis. — We have seen this before, too many times. Staked with a late lead, left-handed reliever Colin Poche couldn't get the job done on Wednesday, and the Rays wound up losing 4-3 in 10 innings to the Milwaukee Brewers
Poche, who leads the Rays' bullpen carousel with seven saves, blew his fifth chance to close out a game this season, allowing a lead-off home run to Rowdy Tellez to start off the bottom of the ninth. The 411-foot homer to straightaway center field tied the game at 3-3, and then the Brewers won it in the 10th on a single by former Rays shortstop Willy Adames off of Ryan Thompson.
With the win, the Brewers swept the season series, 4-0. It's just for the fifth time in franchise history that the Rays have been swept in a series of four games or more. The Miami Marlins swept them in all six games in 2005 and went 4-0 against the Rays in 2014. The Minnesota Twins went 6-0 in both 2003 and 2005.
It was the third straight blown save for Poche in which he gave up a late home run. The same thing happened July 27-28 at Baltimore, where he gave up home runs with a one-run lead on back-to-back days.
Poche has allowed nine home runs this season in just 38 innings. For comparison purposes, starter Drew Rasmussen has given up eight home runs in 91 1/3 innings.
"Once you get to the ninth inning with a lead, everything that happened before that is irrelevant.'' Poche said after the game. "I got ahead on Tellez, but then i didn't make the pitches to put him away. I caught way too much of the plate and he put a good swing on it.
"It's a combination of falling behind hitters or not putting them away. It's definitely disappointing to let (the team) down like that, especially when you've got a lead late like that. I know Thompson gets the loss, but I put that one on me."
It was a tough loss to swallow considering the Rays' standing in the wild card race. They were holding down the last spot coming into action on Wednesday, so the loss hurts.
Especially the way it happened.
The Rays did a great job of fighting their way back into the game after starter Jeffrey Springs got touched for two runs in the first inning. He pitched four scoreless innings after that, and Jason Adam, Pete Fairbanks and Brooks Raley all put up zeroes in relief through eight innings.
The outstanding pitching allowed the Rays to get back into the game. The Rays got a run in the third to cut the lead to 2-1 when Francisco Mejia doubled and scored on a David Peralta single.
Yu Chang hit a solo home run in the fifth inning, and then Randy Arozarena gave them the lead with a homer in the seventh that traveled 431 feet.
But they couldn't hang on, dropping their seventh straight interleague game after winning 10 in a row earlier this year. It's the 26th blown save of the year, far and away the most in baseball this season.
Poche got three straight outs after the homer to force extra innings. The Rays messed up the top of the 10th, though. Taylor Walls hit a hard grounder to Tellez at first, and he threw out placed runner Mejia at third. Walls then got thrown out trying to steal second and the Rays didn't score.
In the bottom of the inning, the Rays opted to walk Christian Yelich to start the inning, but Adames singled to end the game.
The Rays are off on Thursday and then come home for a huge three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The Rays are lined up perfectly for the series, with their three best starters all set to go on full rest, and then some. Corey Kluber is pitching Friday, Shane McClanahan on Saturday and Drew Rasmussen on Sunday.
