Tampa Bay Rays' Bats Fall Silent in Series-Evening Loss to Boston Red Sox

BOSTON — In the wake of Monday's back-and-forth thriller, the Tampa Bay Rays never held a lead against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday.

It took just over two hours and 20 minutes for the Red Sox to secure the 3-1 win, standing in sharp opposition to the preceding 11-inning marathon that clocked in at three hours, 49 minutes.

Boston got to right-hander Ryan Pepiot early, with Rafael Devers and Carlos Narváez notching a single and a double, respectively, in the bottom of the first. Devers' single dropped down in front of center fielder Jake Mangum and right fielder Josh Lowe, leading Mangum to take full responsibility for the inning eventually getting out of control.

"I gotta have that, that's on me," Mangum said. "Late communication, called it late, gotta call it earlier. That one's on me."

From there, Roman Anthony plated both runners with his first career MLB hit, slapping a two-RBI double to left.

Pepiot ultimately got settled in, retiring 15 of the next 18 Red Sox batters. By the time there were two down in the sixth, the righty had racked up nine strikeouts, despite feeling a little under the weather.

"I thought he competed as well as we could asked," said manager Kevin Cash. "Did a nice job of resetting and making some big pitches throughout the game with guys on base."

But on Pepiot's 108th pitch of the night, Trevor Story took him over the Green Monster for a 398-foot solo home run.

"Get through the fifth, 90 pitches, and I'm just like 'I'm going out for the sixth.' I walked in, I said 'I'm good, send me out there,'" Pepiot recounted. "Story fouls off a bunch of pitches and then hits a moonshot. Threw it right in the zone, trying to get above the zone and missed...you know, tip the cap."

Mason Englert stepped up with 2.1 scoreless innings of relief, providing a much-needed break for the rest of the Rays' bullpen, but the damage had already been done.

Meanwhile, all the offense Tampa Bay could muster up was a single run in the fifth, and even that one was unearned. Yandy Díaz's RBI single only brought home a run because of Lucas Giolito's botched pickoff attempt that sent José Caballero to third.

Giolito gave up three hits and three walks across 6.0 innings of work. Garrett Whitlock and Greg Weissert took care of business from there, with the latter getting credit for his second career save.

The Rays fell to 36-31 with the loss, but they still lead the Red Sox by 4.0 games heading into Wednesday’s finale. Their 15-5 record since May 20 is still best in baseball in that time, too.

"You're not gonna win every single one of them, we talk about that all the time," Pepiot said. "If you go 162-0, then there's gonna be something crazy going on in that clubhouse. So it's just about putting series wins together, stacking stuff on. We're on a really, really good run right now and one night tonight isn't gonna change that."

Related Rays stories

• CABALLERO STAYS SPEEDY: By swiping his 24th and 25th bags of the season Tuesday night against the Boston Red Sox, José Caballero achieved a feat the Tampa Bay Rays had only seen from Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton and Josh Lowe. CLICK HERE

• ENGLERT REPLACES SEYMOUR: The Tampa Bay Rays' bullpen has chipped in a combined 28.2 innings since their last off day, so Mason Englert is set to provide some much-needed reinforcements against the Boston Red Sox. CLICK HERE

• RAYS WIN OPENER: Despite letting the mistake-riddled Boston Red Sox back into the contest a few times down the stretch, the Tampa Bay Rays still held on to win 10-8 on Monday. CLICK HERE

You can follow Sam Connon on Twitter @SamConnon.