Rays' Bullpen Falters Again in Frustrating 4-2 Loss to Tigers

DETROIT, Mich. — When a baseball team hits the skids, there's usually some sort of common thread that defines the struggles. That's certainly the case right now with the Tampa Bay Rays.

That thread? It's when that bullpen door flies open.

The Rays lost 4-2 to the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night, and they are now 3-8 in their last 11 games. Once 11 games over .500 and just a half-game out of first in the American League East less than two weeks ago, they are now 49-43 and five games behind red-hot Toronto Blue Jays.

Tuesday's culprit was reliever Edwin Uceta, who's been in a serious rough patch lately. But Rays manager Kevin Cash continues to put him in high-leverage situations anyway.

And Uceta keeps failing.

He came in to pitch the seventh inning, replacing Ryan Pepiot with the score tied 2-2. Uceta walked leadoff hitter Zach McKinstry, but then coaxed flyouts from Matt Vierling and Javier Baez. But then he left a changeup over the plate and Colt Keith — who's had five hits already in this series — smashed a 391-foot homer over the right field wall, making it 4-2.

And that was it. Hitters have caught up with Uceta, and it shows.

"The other teams have made an adjustment to the way I pitch,'' Uceta said through interpretor Eddie Rodriguez. "I'm going to have to study more and make my adjustments, too. It's not mechanics, and it's nothing mental, they are just making adjustments like everyone else does.

"The pitches in the zone, they're attacking more. And after I gave up that walk, I had to be around the plate more. Hats off to the hitters; they are making the adjustments.''

The Rays scored solo runs in the first and third innings to take a 2-0 lead but they did nothing after that. The first run came on a Jonathan Aranda home run in the first, and then Aranda doubled and scored on a Josh Lowe single in the third.

Spencer Torkelson made it 2-1 in the fourth with a solo home run and the Tigers — who have the best record in baseball at 59-34 and have won five straight games — tied it on a Keith single in the fifth.

Pepiot was mostly good, allowing just two runs and three hits, but he also walked three batters and hit two others and had to work through a lot of traffic.

He did his part. The bullpen, not so much.

"(Pepiot) had to grind through that fifth and sixth, no doubt. He set a tone that first time through. He was dominant. But they made some adjustment and he kind of lost the zone a little bit.

"It's kind of been plauging the (bullpen) group. They're really going through it right now. But I'm confident that they'll bounce back. It's just a pitch here or there. That team, they're really good and they're going to make the most of their opportunities.''

It also isn't helping that the Rays' bats have gone silent. They are giving up runs late, but not scoring any of their own at the same time. In the last three innings on Tuesday night, they had just two singles, with neither runner threatening to score.

Rookie center fielder Chandler Simpson struck out in the second inning with two men on and none out, breaking his streak of 45 consective plate apperances without a strikeout. It was the second-longest streak by a rookie in Rays history, second only to Randy Winn (59) in 1998, the Rays' first season.

The two teams wrap up the series on Wednesday. but the game time has been moved from 1:10 p.m. ET to a 5:10 p.m. first pitch because of impending rain. Zack Littell (7-7, 3.50 ERA is pitching for Tampa Bay, and Reese Olson (4-3, 2.89 ERA) gets the call for Detroit. Following the game, the Rays head off to Boston for a four-game series with the Red Sox leading into the All-Star break.

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