Friday, 4 a.m.
Yeah, you saw it coming. You knew it even before the standings confirmed it.
But there will be no winning record for the Tampa Bay Rays this season.
The Rays lost their 81st game in Thursday's 4-3 come-from-behind win by the Detroit Tigers. That means the best they can do, even if they sweep Boston in their upcoming series.is an 81-81 finish.
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The last six seasons, the Rays finished with a winning record. But an inability to hit did them in this year.
It wasn't quite that way Thursday. The Rays took a 3-0 lead and seemed to on their way to a win. Brandon Lowe had a two-run single in the third. In the fifth, Taylor Walls tripled and scored ona wild pitch.
After that, the Tigers took over. They scord twice in the sixth and twice in the eighth to pull out the win.
In the sixth, Keith tripled in Verling, then scored on a single by Carpenter. In the eighth. Keith singled in Greene. Malloy hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the winning run.
Tyler Alexander threw five innings of shutout baseball, giving up just four hits. But the bullpen failed him. Hunter Bigge and Garrett Cleavinger each gave up two runs.
The Rays had just seven hits, two each by Brandon Lowe and Walls.
The Rays open their season-ending series against Boston tonight at 7:10 p.m. Taj Bradley will start for the Rays against Nick Pivetta.