That kind of night: Pepiot's start spoiled by bad hop as Rays' slide continues

CINCINNATI -- When it rains, it pours. And it’s coming down in sheets right now on the Rays.

Tampa Bay got just what skipper Kevin Cash said the Rays needed before Saturday night’s game vs. the Reds -- an outstanding start from Ryan Pepiot, who made it through six frames without allowing an earned run.

But what they got after that was exactly what they didn’t need -- another bullpen meltdown, another injured reliever and one really bad hop.

Tampa Bay’s bullpen was tagged for four runs in two innings and Bryan Baker left in the seventh with a strained right calf in the middle of a key at-bat as the Rays fell to the Reds, 6-2, at Great American Ball Park.

Tampa Bay lost their sixth straight on the road, and for the 12th time in 15 games away from George M. Steinbrenner Field, falling to 7-17 overall since June 27.

On the day that it was announced that reliever Manuel Rodríguez would be having season-ending elbow surgery on Aug. 8, Baker felt something in his right calf, which caught the attention of Cash and the Rays' medical team.

“Really, just the last couple pitches, and honestly, that was good eyes by them to kind of see a reaction out of me on the last one,” Baker said. “And I wouldn't have thought about it and would have kept going, and then I threw the warm-up to test it, and it got significantly worse.”

Cash said Baker would be day-to-day for the time being.

Still, with the game tied 2-2 and with two outs in the seventh, Baker left a 1-2 count to lefty Garrett Cleavinger with Matt McLain at the plate. Cleavinger lost McLain to a walk to load the bases for Elly De La Cruz.

Cleavinger got ahead of Cincinnati’s dynamic threat with two quick strikes. But De La Cruz fought back to a full count and then lofted a single to the Bermuda Triangle between the second baseman, center fielder and right fielder. The soft single scored two and gave the Reds a 4-2 lead, one they did not give up the rest of the way.

“The one he hit was a pretty [well] executed cutter up and in where he's not able to extend his hands, and he's a big, powerful guy, so you want to try and crowd him a little bit,” Cleavinger said. “I mean, he hits it 70 miles an hour and just dunks it in. So it's kind of tough, just kind of how things are going right now.”

Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth when Yandy Díaz belted an 84 mph changeup from Cincinnati starter Andrew Abbott several rows up into the bleachers to the right of the center-field berm for his 18th homer.

But the story through five innings was Pepiot. The only hit the right-hander allowed was a first-inning double by De La Cruz to the warning track in left that Christopher Morel lost in the sun and recovered too late, as the ball bounced on the track and into the left-field stands.

Pepiot struck out six but walked four in his six innings, allowing just two hits and two unearned runs.

“He was outstanding,” Cash said. “I couldn't be more encouraged by the way he threw. He was efficient, dominant stuff, a lot of swings and misses. He landed pitches when he needed to. He was really, really good.”

But the way things have been going for the Rays in the last 24 games, it only made sense that they'd be on the wrong end of a costly break.

With runners on second and third and two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Austin Hays hit a sharp grounder to Taylor Walls at short. Walls, considered one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball, allowed the ball to pop over his glove. Both runners scored, and Cincinnati had a 2-1 lead.

“I don't think that ball takes that hop in a cow pasture, to be honest,” Walls said. “You just got to [forget it]. I don't really know what else to tell you. It was purely the hop. To play the game at short, you always have to be aggressive. You always have to attack the ball.

"From a viewer’s perspective, you could probably ask, ‘Why?' You have to come get the ball. You have to be ready to attack it. You have to attack hops. I've attacked that same exact hop a thousand times. I'm lucky to have my teeth, to be honest, because that hop shouldn't happen.”

Added Pepiot: “We literally had a meeting, and it's like, ‘The ball’s coming to you, Walls.’ And he's like, ‘I hear changeup in the ear, be calm.' He's like, ‘I know the ball's coming to me.’ And it just took a weird hop from what I could see. But 100 out of 100, he makes that play. He turned a good double play for me earlier in the game, but I put up too many free passes today.”