What, them worry? Rays bullpen holds off Tigers for much-needed win

DETROIT — Starter Zack Littell already had let one lead get away in the fourth inning Wednesday, and here the Rays were trying to protect a later one with a bullpen for which “beleaguered” was a kind adjective.

Up three runs with two outs and a man on second in the sixth, manager Kevin Cash called on reliever Kevin Kelly, whose last two outings had cost the Rays games.

But this time, Kelly did his job, getting Matt Vierling to pop out.

With the lead now four in the seventh, Kelly had runners on the corners but got the second out.

Cash next summoned Garrett Cleavinger, who has had an equally rough recent run. He walked his first batter to load the bases. The Tigers’ most dangerous hitter, and seemingly licensed Rays killer, left-swinging Riley Greene, was up.

“Tough match-up, for sure,” Cleavinger said. “He’s a good hitter having a heck of a year, so ideally you don’t want him up with the bases loaded. But left on left, that’s a matchup we’ll take.”

And take care of, as Cleavinger also did what he is supposed to, striking out Greene to end the threat.

Mason Englert and closer Pete Fairbanks handled the final two innings, and the Rays got to exhale and celebrate a much-needed win, 7-3 over the majors-best Tigers.

The victory was important, as it was only the Rays’ fourth in the last 12 games and avoided a sweep. They jetted off to Boston at 50-43 for a four-game set with the Red Sox heading into the All-Star break.

“A loss would have sucked, to be honest,” second baseman Taylor Walls said. “If we would have lost (Wednesday), it would have been trying to grind after it for four days. We’re still going to do that, we always do that. But feeling like we got a win under our belt, strung a few hits together, ended it on a good note going into a series against Boston ready to go.”

Rays third baseman Junior Caminero loses the ball while attempting to tag the sliding Zach McKinstry of the Tigers in the fourth inning. [ DUANE BURLESON | AP ]

More important was how the Rays won — or, to be candid, didn’t lose — with Kelly and Cleavinger stepping up in the kind of key situations in which the relievers haven’t lately.

“Huge for them to respond,” Littell said. “None of us have doubted those guys. We go through tough stretches. It’s not fun for anybody. They’re not having a good time. We’re not having a good time. But for them to come out there and execute pitches when they needed to execute pitches against a really good lineup, it feels awesome.”

Each of the Rays’ last five losses were at the hands of the bullpen. In each of their previous six games and nine of 11, relievers allowed multiple runs. The bullpen ERA over the previous 15 games was 7.57.

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But Wednesday, nothing bad happened.

Which was a good thing.

“There’s been some ebbs and flows, right? But that’s just kind of how baseball goes,” Cleavinger said. “I feel like everyone did a really good job (Wednesday). Kevin came in and got some big outs. I was able to come in and get an out for us. And then Englert and Pete looked great. So, it was a good step in the right direction.”

What also helped, and has been lacking lately, was some support from the offense.

The Rays took a 2-0 lead in the first, with hits from All-Stars Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero, a run-scoring ground out by Josh Lowe and a two-out, RBI single by Jake Mangum.

Jonathan Aranda doubles in the first inning. He came around to score the Rays’ first run on a Josh Lowe ground out. [ DUANE BURLESON | AP ]

But Littell, who had been on a good roll, had — by his standards — a bad day, allowing the Tigers to go ahead 3-2 in the fourth.

“I just didn’t have my best (Wednesday), didn’t execute, didn’t feel great, just from a mechanical standpoint. But those outings happen,” Littell said. “I’ve been on a nice run of feeling really good, and sometimes you just have to fight through the ones that you don’t. And this just happened to be one of those.

“But honestly, the hitters deserve the props for coming back. It’s extremely deflating … anytime we give up a lead after they’ve worked really hard to get one. And so, to give up three and go down one there and then come back and just keep going was impressive.”

Especially the way they did, rapping four straight two-out, run-scoring hits (the first three within a five-pitch sequence off Chase Lee) to go up 6-3. Ha-Seong Kim doubled, Walls singled, Danny Jansen doubled, and Yandy Diaz singled.

Cash was impressed with how his team came back.

“We did a good job early on. We’ve done some good things early in the ballgame, but they’ve answered back every single time,” he said. “And (Wednesday), we had an answer. Just a bunch of good at-bats.”

The Rays, who piled up 16 hits, extended their lead to 7-3 on a homer by Caminero in the seventh.

Cash used Englert, the recent call-up, for the eighth. But he wasn’t taking any chances in the ninth, calling on his closer, Fairbanks, to get the final three outs.

“Cleve came up big. Kevin Kelly got some big outs for us. Mason Englert looked really good,” Cash said. “And then felt like, (with) a four-run lead, still wanted Pete to come in there, and let’s see if we can close this thing out.”

Given how it’s gone, that made perfect sense.

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