Wednesday, 3 a.m.
Stop them if you’ve heard this before.
The bullpen of the Tampa Bay Rays is still leaky.
The Rays dropped a 4-2 game to Detroit — their fourth loss in five games — when, once again, their relief corps could not make a narrow lead hold up late. This time, the losing pitcher was Colin Poche, who gave up three runs and three hits in his one inning of work.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo). Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
Tampa Bay, which struggled offensively most of the night, had finally taken a 2-1 lead on Isaac Paredes’ sixth home run in the sixth inning. But two innings later, the Tigers got home runs from Riley Greene (his second of the night) and Mark Canha to take the lead.
The Rays wasted a good starting performance from Ryan Pepiot, who gave up just three hits and one run in his six innings.
The Rays had just six hits, and none of them on the seven at-bats they had with runners in scoring position.
The Rays have now lost 13 games this season, and six of them have been by the bullpen.
Tampa Bay and Detroit will play the final game of their three-game series tonight at 6:50 p.m.
Tyler Alexander will start for the Rays against Detroit’s Jack Flaherty.