Rays lose to Blue Jays in Ryan Pepiot's return

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Sep 16, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — The Rays were expecting Ryan Pepiot to come out strong on Tuesday after skipping his last start Sept. 10 due to “total body fatigue” and saying that with the extra rest he felt “back to normal.”

The plan was for Pepiot to work five solid innings against the Blue Jays, then make another start or two to put a good finish on his first full big-league season.

But Pepiot didn’t pitch anything like his usual normal in his 30th start, lasting only a rough 1 2/3 innings in 6-5 loss that dropped the Rays to 73-78 and closer to official elimination from the American League wild-card race. They started the day 8 1/2 games behind the Astros, who held the No. 3 spot, and played later Tuesday night.

Pepiot threw five scoreless innings in each of his last three starts, allowing a total of two hits. On Tuesday he allowed four runs on four hits and three walks, throwing only 29 of 49 pitches for strikes.

Manager Kevin Cash said before the game they felt Pepiot was in a good spot after the decision to skip the previous outing.

“I’m happy that we did that,” Cash said. “I felt like it made the most sense given at the point where we were in the season, kind of where we’re in the standings, let’s make sure we take care of him and take care of the rest of our guys.

“But this is a step in the direction of him finishing off a really strong season for us.”

Now it seems a fair question if his season is over.

The Blue Jays took the 4-0 lead to the third, when the Rays cut the gap to 4-3 on a Brandon three-run homer that survived a replay review challenge for what looked to be fan interference. But the call stood as the replay officials apparently couldn’t be sure that the ball wouldn’t have gone out had the fan not reached out.

Toronto added to its lead against the Rays bullpen.

In the fourth inning, Nathan Lukes hit a homer off Joey Gerber that was ruled by replay to have gone over the wall. And in the fifth, Joey Loperfido went deep off Kevin Kelly.

The Rays pulled within 6-4 in the eighth when Tristan Gray singled in Josh Lowe with one out. Pinch-hitter Christopher Morel walked to give the Rays a chance for more, but pinch-hitter Nick Fortes grounded into a double play.

The Rays added another in the ninth when Brandon Lowe singled in Chandler Simpson, who walked, stole second and went to third on an errant throw. They had two on with one out, but couldn’t get another run in.

Yandy Diaz rapped two hits, moving past Aubrey Huff into fifth place on the Rays’ all-time list with 872. No. 4 is BJ Upton with 910. Simpson stole two bases, giving him 42 for the season, second most in the majors.

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