Ryan Pepiot pitched three-hit ball and struck out a career-high 11 batters in six scoreless innings, Jose Siri and Austin Shenton had two hits apiece and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2 on Sunday in Denver.
Pepiot (1-1) topped his previous high of nine strikeouts, which also came at Coors Field on Sept. 26, 2023, when he pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He didn’t walk a batter Sunday and bounced back from allowing six runs in 5 2/3 innings against Texas in his season debut.
Shawn Armstrong tossed two innings of relief for his first save.
Dakota Hudson (0-2) also pitched six innings but gave up three runs on seven hits for Colorado. Nolan Jones and Brenton Doyle had two hits apiece.
The Rays struck first in the second inning. Jose Caballero and Shenton hit consecutive doubles to put Tampa Bay on the board and Siri followed with a single to make it 2-0.
The Rays added another run in the third when Brandon Lowe led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Isaac Paredes’ single to left field. Hudson fanned Richie Palacios and Charlie Blackmon made a sliding catch in right on Caballero’s liner to keep it 3-0.
Colorado struggled to get anything going after two straight high-scoring games. Ryan McMahon singled with two outs in the first inning and Jones had a leadoff base hit in the second but was caught stealing.
Pepiot set down the next 10 batters, including seven strikeouts, until Doyle’s two-out double in the fifth.
The Rockies broke through against reliever Phil Maton when pinch hitter Jake Cave led off the eighth with a triple and came home on Elias Diaz’s pinch-hit single.
Maton walked the next two batters to load the bases with no outs but Armstrong got McMahon to hit into a fielder’s choice at home plate and Kris Bryant grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Jones led off the ninth with a walk and scored on Doyle’s single but Armstrong got the next two batters out to end the game.
–Field Level Media