Mead’s home run leads Rays to victory

by Gary Shelton on April 25, 2024

in general

Mead hit his second homer./TIM WIRT

Thursday, 4 a.m.

The last thing you might expect from the Tampa Bay Rays is the guy from down under to go up and over.

Curtis Mead, hardly a fence-buster, lifted the Rays to a 7-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers with a two-run homer in the sixth inning. It was Mead’s first home run of the season, and the second of his career. Mead is hitting .231 on the season.






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The Rays salvaged one win in the three-game series against the Tigers, but it didn’t come without a struggle.

Tampa Bay had built a 4-1 lead, but fell behind 5-4 with the Tigers’ two-run sixth.

The Rays came back with a strong day from the bullpen. Jason Adam went two hitless innings, and Garrett Cleavinger picked up his second save. 

The Rays had 11 hits, including two each from Yandy Diaz, Isaac Paredes and Ben Rortvedt.

The Rays had lost four of their previous five games. They are now 13-13 on the season.

The Rays are off today, then play at the Chicago White Sox on Friday night at 7:40 p.m.

Bolts fall behind 2-0 in series against Panthers

by Gary Shelton on April 24, 2024

in general

Vasilevskiy stopped 34 shots./TIM WIRT

Wednesday, 4 a.m.

The moments when it got away are with them still. Carter Verehaeghe’s winning goal. The save by Sergie Bobrovskiy’s elbow. The four-minute power play where they didn’t score.

They might as well look at those moments.

It beats looking at their situation.






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The Tampa Bay Lightning dropped its second 3-2 game (this one in overtime) to the Florida Panthers Tuesday night. The Bolts fell behind, then came back, then lost in overtime. It was the Panthers’ 11th straight overtime win; the Bolts are 1-10 in their last 11 overtimes.

This one felt closer than the Bolts’ opening 3-2 loss to Florida. After a flat first period when Tampa Bay fell behind 2-0 on goals by Sam Bennett and  Vladimir Tarasenko.

The Bolts tied the game on goals by Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos to force overtime. But one key save by Panthers’ goalie Sergei Bobrovsky came in the second period when he dove and blocked a shot by the Lightning’s Matt Dumba with his elbow.

“You’re looking at two of the best,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Sometimes, you have sit here and marvel at some the saves that were made.”

Former Lightning player Verhaeghe scored the winning goal three minutes into overtime.

After tw games, NHL leading scoring Nikita Kucherov has just one point and only three shots.

“This group knows how to get it done,” Cooper said. “It was so damn close to getting done.”

The teams play again Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Amalie Arena.

Rays’ bullpen blows another game

by Gary Shelton on April 24, 2024

in general

Paredes had a two-run homer./TIM WIRT

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.






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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.

Tigers batter Rays behind Skubal

by Gary Shelton on April 23, 2024

in general

Tuesday, 4 a.m.

The less said about this one, the better.

The Tampa Bay Rays were clobbered Monday night, losing a 7-1 rout to the Detroit Tigers and pitcher Tarik Skubal. It was the team’s third loss in its last four games and sent them back to the .500 level at 12-12.

The Rays could barely touch Skubal, who threw six innings and allowed just three hits. He struck out nine.

The Rays’ Zach Littell, on the other hand, gave up nine hits and five earned runs in his six innings. The Rays fell behind 3-0 in the first two innings and never challenged. They went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

Amed Rosario had two of the Rays’ six hits and extended his hitting streak to 14 games. In nine of the 14 games, Rosario has had multi-hits.

The Rays will start Ryan Pepiot in tonight’s game against the Tigers (6:50 p.m.). The Tigers will counter with Kenta Maeda,

Bad innings dooms Rays against Yanks

April 22, 2024 general

Monday, 4 a.m. There are terrible places to forget how to play baseball. Standing on the mound at Yankee Stadium is one of them. Aaron Civale, in the middle of a pretty good pitching performance, had his control abandon him in the fifth inning of a 5-4 loss. Pitching in a 1-1 tie, Civale got […]

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Caballero’s double lifts Rays to victory

April 21, 2024 general

Sunday, 4 a.m. It was the kind of game that makes the Yankees’ beancounters pay attention. “We paid this….for that? Despite the highly paid lineup of the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Rays slipped past the Yanks 2-0 in 10 innings Saturday afternoon. The Yankees managed only four hits — and no runs — […]

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Rays can’t hold on against Yankees

April 20, 2024 general

Saturday, 4 a.m. Perhaps the New York Yankees noticed something new about the Tampa Bay Rays Friday night. They can’t field. They can’t relieve. They can’t hit with runners in scoring position. Oh, and they can’t win. Content beyond this point is for members only. Already a member? To view the rest of this column, […]

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Pepiot shuts down Angels in victory

April 19, 2024 general

Friday, 4 a.m. A few more of these, and perhaps the fans of the Tampa Bay Rays won’t miss Tyler Glasnow quite so much. Ryan Pepiot, who came to the Rays in the Glasnow shed-his-salary trade, was masterful Thursday in a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Pepiot went six innings and gave up […]

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Fairbanks struggles as closer again

April 18, 2024 general

Thursday, 4 a.m. He cannot shut the door. He cannot turn out the lights. He cannot nail the coffin. Oh, the struggles of Pete Fairbanks continue. The Tampa Bay Rays, it seemed, had done it again. They had taken another lead on the bat of Amed Rosario — who hit a go-ahead two-run homer in […]

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Kucherov hits 100 as Bolts win finale

April 18, 2024 general

SThursday, 3 a.m. Nikita Kucherov continued to direct the orchestra Thursday night. He leads, and everyone else follows. Kucherov became the fifth man in the history of the NHL to compile 100 assists in a season in the Bolts’ 6-4 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was the team’s final regular season game. They […]

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