ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After a 12-minute umpire delay in the eighth inning, Rays reliever Calvin Faucher struck out the first Brewers batter he faced. Then he backed the second batter, Rowdy Tellez, into a two-strike count.
But Tellez connected on Faucher’s next pitch and launched his curveball into right field. Harold Ramirez faded toward the wall, and kept fading, as Tellez’s blast kept rising, until eventually the ball bounced off the C-Ring — one of the two lower catwalks at Tropicana Field — and settled into the outfield grass for a home run.
Tellez’s second homer Wednesday afternoon, and Milwaukee’s sixth of the two-game series, created an advantage the Rays couldn’t overcome in a 5-3 loss as the Brewers swept the short series.
The Rays (40-34) took a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning, when Wander Franco pulled a ball down the third-base line that rolled to the wall and scored Vidal Bruján from first. The Brewers (44-33) made a pitching change afterward, replacing starter Eric Lauer with Jandel Gustave, and the reliever struck out Josh Lowe and induced an infield pop up by Harold Ramirez to strand Franco.
That erased the lead that Milwaukee had just regained in its previous set of at-bats. From his spot on the mound, Shawn Armstrong crouched and stared as the ball left Luis Urías’ bat and kept rising. He’d already recorded the fifth inning’s first two outs. Armstrong had just walked Andrew McCutchen. And when Urías connected on an 0-2 fastball, the Milwaukee second baseman sent it toward left-centerfield and off the C-Ring.
Jalen Beeks’ fourth start this season marked a new career high for him — he made three in 2019, then one before that with the Red Sox as a rookie in 2018 — and it’s the third time he’s opened a game for the Rays in his last four appearances. In the second, Tellez blasted his first home run, on a fastball that traveled down the center of the strike zone, to give the Brewers an early lead. Bruján, in centerfield for the first time this season, tried to track it by keeping his left hand outstretched but glanced up and saw the ball clear the wall.
Beeks’ trouble continued after Tellez’s home run. He allowed a double to Mike Brosseau that one-hopped the wall on the next pitch, then hit Victor Caratini to put runners on first and second with no outs. After a mound visit, Beeks threw 10 of his next 13 pitches for strikes, struck out three consecutive hitters and escaped the jam.
That was all the scoring either team managed until the fourth, when Randy Arozarena walked and Harold Ramirez bounced a single to right. They executed a double-steal, giving the Rays two runners in scoring position. Ji-Man Choi struck out, but Taylor Walls lifted a ball to shallow right-center field. Jace Peterson charged toward the spot where he expected it to land, but the ball popped off the top of his glove and Arozarena and Ramirez scored, giving the Rays a 2-1 lead.
Even after Tellez’s second home run, the Rays positioned themselves to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth. Two walks by Brewers pitcher Devin Williams gave them runners on first and second with two outs. But Walls struck out when he attempted to check his swing, and that sank the Rays. Then, Peterson launched Milwaukee’s sixth homer of the series, and its lead continued to grow.
