TAMPA -- The Rays played it safe with Ryan Pepiot last week, skipping his scheduled start in Chicago on Wednesday due to what they called “full body fatigue.” The 28-year-old right-hander is nearing the end of his first full, wire-to-wire season in a Major League rotation, and they didn’t want to take any chances with what is already a career-high workload.
So Pepiot returned to the rotation on Tuesday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field, saying he felt “back to normal” and fully prepared for his 30th start. But he didn’t pick up where he left off before his brief break, recording only five outs while giving up four runs in the Rays’ 6-5 loss to the Blue Jays.
It was not an issue of rust, Pepiot said. He felt fine physically. And his pure stuff displayed no issues, as his fastball averaged 95.5 mph and topped out at 96.6. It was just a bad night -- more specifically, one bad inning.
“I didn't feel anything different. I mean, it's the 30th start of the year. Been pitching all season,” Pepiot said afterward. “No rust. Just sucky command.”
That wasn’t necessarily the case in the first inning. Pepiot gave up a run, but it came on two singles (both on 0-2 pitches) and a sacrifice bunt as he threw 13 of his 18 pitches for strikes. Still, that snapped a streak of 15 scoreless innings over his last three starts in which he had held opponents to a 2-for-45 clip.
The second inning was far more uncharacteristic, as he issued three consecutive walks to Davis Schneider, Ernie Clement and Andrés Giménez -- the Jays’ No. 6-8 hitters. And Toronto made him pay, as George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. drove in all three free baserunners with a pair of singles.
“Two 0-2 hits in the first inning led to a run, then went out in the second inning and had no idea where it was going. Tried to make too good of pitches, and they spoiled some good ones,” Pepiot said. “But when you fall behind on every single person and you have the bottom of the lineup up and you walk all three of them in a row, you get what you deserve there.”
Pepiot struck out Myles Straw and Nathan Lukes during that sequence, but after Guerrero’s hit made it a 4-0 game and drove Pepiot’s pitch count up to 31 in the second inning alone, manager Kevin Cash called in right-hander Joey Gerber from the bullpen.
“He just couldn't quite execute the pitches the way that we've seen him do all season long,” Cash said. “Normally, he's so good at resetting himself even after an at-bat, sometimes within the at-bat, but just didn't happen.”
The start matched his June 27 outing in Baltimore as the shortest outing of his career. Gerber picked up a lot of the slack, covering 2 1/3 innings while allowing just one run on a replay-reviewed homer by Lukes. Reliever Kevin Kelly gave up a run while working two innings, then Cole Sulser (two innings) and Bryan Baker (one) finished the game.
After his skipped start last week became a bullpen game, Pepiot was frustrated that Tuesday night turned out to be more or less the same thing as the Rays lost their third straight and for the ninth time in their last 11 games, falling to 73-78 on the year.
“I skipped a start last week, bullpen had to take it over, and then I don't even make it out of the second inning today and screw the bullpen over again?” he said. “You know, I couldn't feel really any worse.”
The Rays still had a chance to win, thanks to a three-run homer by Brandon Lowe (which held up after a review for fan interference) in the third and RBI singles by Tristan Gray and Lowe in the eighth. But they came up short in the final inning for a second straight night, as Josh Lowe and Jake Mangum struck out with two runners on in the ninth.
Coming off a frustrating performance, with the postseason now all but officially out of reach, Pepiot was asked Tuesday night if he plans to pitch again during the final two weeks of the season. He’s already thrown 164 2/3 innings, more than the career-high mark of 133 1/3 he set last year.
For him, it’s not a question.
“Still pretty sure I'm slotted for two more. I want to make those,” Pepiot said. “Flush this one, forget about all that crap that happened today and get back out there and do what I've been doing all year.”