Rays ride 4-run rally, bullpen bounceback to nab 50th win of '25

DETROIT -- This time, the Rays were on the right side of a winning rally against the bullpen.

Trailing the Tigers by a run after five innings in Wednesday’s series finale at Comerica Park, the Rays strung together four straight run-scoring hits in the sixth, and the bullpen bounced back with a clutch performance in a 7-3 win, their 50th victory of the season.

As they did in Minnesota to begin this three-city road trip leading into the All-Star break, the Rays dropped the first two games of the series against the Tigers before salvaging a win in the finale.

It was only the Rays’ fourth win in their past 12 games, but they were hoping this one would create some momentum to finish the first half strong as they departed for Boston on Wednesday night.

“A sweep going into a really tough series in Boston would not have been fun,” said starter Zack Littell, who gave up three runs over 5 2/3 innings. “The bullpen … it hasn't gone our way here lately, so for them to come in there do it against one of the best lineups in the league and make pitches when we needed to make them and get us a win going into Boston is huge.”

Tampa Bay scored two runs in the first inning to take an early lead, and the club had chances to add on after that. In each of the next four innings, the Rays put a runner on base with either no outs or one out, but they couldn’t convert on any of those situations. It looked like they’d lament those missed opportunities when Littell gave up three runs in the fourth.

They finally broke through with two outs in the sixth. Specifically, the bottom of the lineup broke through.

With Jake Mangum on second base, Ha-Seong Kim ripped a game-tying double to center field off right-hander Chase Lee for his first RBI as a Ray. Kim said he was looking for a first-pitch sinker from Lee, and he got one in the zone that he could drive.

Taylor Walls followed with a go-ahead single to left, then Danny Jansen delivered a run-scoring double off the wall. Kim, Walls and Jansen saw a combined five pitches from Lee, which is why Tigers catcher Jake Rogers credited the Rays for simply being “on the pitches early.”

After that came Yandy Díaz, who worked a full count before smacking another RBI single to center.

“Nice to string a few hits like that together, especially with two outs, [and] get a few runs across,” said Walls, who made a handful of highlight-reel defensive plays in his first start at second base since 2023. “Feel like we've been kind of lacking that here lately when we needed it, so that was big.”

Indeed, that was something the Rays didn’t do in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss. They scored early, as they did Wednesday. But while the Tigers came roaring back, Tampa Bay went down quietly. That wasn’t the case in the last game of the series.

“We've done some good things early in the ballgame, but they've answered back every single time,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Today we had an answer. Just a bunch of good at-bats.”

The Rays tacked on another run in the seventh when Junior Caminero -- who found out postgame that he'd be starting at third in Tuesday's All-Star Game -- clubbed his 22nd home run of the season, a Statcast-projected 398-foot shot to left field that he admired as a potential preview of his appearance in next week’s T-Mobile Home Run Derby.

With a four-run advantage, Tampa Bay's bullpen -- which had coughed up a multirun lead in four of the team’s five losses this month -- held on.

“None of us have doubted those guys. We go through tough stretches. It’s not fun for anybody,” Littell said. “But for them to come out there and execute pitches when they needed to execute pitches against a really good lineup, it feels awesome.”

Kevin Kelly stranded a runner at second base to end the sixth, and Garrett Cleavinger struck out Riley Greene to leave the bases loaded in the seventh.

“Cleav's stuff was nasty. It always is,” Walls said. “He's disgusting. His stuff plays no matter who he's facing, and that was a big out.”

Former Tiger Mason Englert pitched a scoreless eighth inning, and even with a four-run lead intact, Cash asked closer Pete Fairbanks to handle the ninth. Fairbanks’ fastball topped out at 100.2 mph, his fastest pitch since 2023, as he worked around a two-out single to finish a successful outing for the bullpen.

“There's been some ebbs and flows, right? But that's just kind of how baseball goes,” Cleavinger said. “I feel like everyone did a really good job today. … So it was a good step in the right direction.”