Rays win 4th straight; Padres' offensive woes continue

Brandon Lowe homered Saturday night and Ryan Pepiot fired six strong innings as the visiting Tampa Bay Rays won their fourth straight game with a 4-1 decision over the San Diego Padres.

Pepiot (2-3) allowed just three hits and a run with two walks and three strikeouts. Three relievers protected the lead from there, with Pete Fairbanks pitching the ninth for his fifth save.

Dylan Cease (1-2) picked up the loss after working the first 4 1/3 innings and allowing three runs (two earned) off six hits and four walks. Cease fanned six and threw 95 pitches in San Diego's third straight loss.

Lowe put Tampa Bay on the board in the top of the third, rifling a Cease fastball an estimated 384 feet into the second row in left-center for his fourth homer of the year and his first extra-base hit since April 5, a homer at Texas.

Christopher Morel made it 2-0 later in the inning by ripping an RBI double to the wall in left-center that scored Junior Caminero. Shortstop Xander Bogaerts had dropped Caminero's pop-up immediately after Lowe's homer, making the run unearned.

The Rays made it 3-0 in the fifth when pinch hitter Curtis Mead greeted reliever Yuki Matsui with a sacrifice fly to right that scored Lowe, who led off the inning with a walk and reached third via Caminero's double.

The Padres broke a 30-inning scoreless streak in the sixth when Tyler Wade led off with a triple and came home on a one-out single to right-center by Fernando Tatis Jr. The duo each had two hits; their teammates were a combined 1-for-23.

San Diego put the tying runs aboard with two outs in the eighth on Wade's double and a walk to Elias Diaz. But Hunter Bigge got Tatis swinging on a 1-2 slider off the outside corner for an inning-ending strikeout.

Tampa Bay tacked on a run in the ninth when Taylor Walls drew a bases-loaded walk against reliever Jason Adam.

--Field Level Media