Late rally falls short, Rays lose 11th straight game on Jackie Robinson Day

There's three things that are consistent in today's world. Death, taxes, and the Rays losing on April 15th. It's a pretty wild stat, but it's unfortunately factual. The Rays have lost 11 straight games on the cursed date of April 15th, which also happens to be Jackie Robinson Day. It's supposed to be a day of celebration for the whole baseball community, but for Rays fans it has become an inevitable defeat.

After an onslaught attack against the Red Sox that resulted in a 16-1 victory, the Rays looked primed to finally end their lengthy April 15th losing streak. When streaks of any sort start to get into double digits, people take notice. The Rays felt well-equipped to end this wave of losses with Opening Day starter, Ryan Pepiot toeing the rubber.

Surprisingly, Pepiot was not quite on his game yesterday. Led by two-time World Series champion, Alex Bregman, Boston collected nine hits and six runs against the 27-year old starting pitcher. Most of the production came early in the game as the Red Sox homered twice and scored all six runs in the first four innings of the contest. It appeared to be a revenge game for an offense that was held to only two hits and one run by Shane Baz the night before.

Ryan Pepiot also seemed to make it easy on the Sox lineup at the beginning of the game with way too many pitches left out over the plate. They certainly took advantage of all of those mistakes. Moreover, the strength of the top of their lineup should not be overlooked with Duran, Devers, Bregman, and Abreu all proving they can return to All-Star form in no time.

Also, Tampa Bay's efforts were upended by their nact for leaving runners on base. Seven Rays baserunners were stranded on the base paths last night as they could only muster four runs. However, they showed some fight in the ninth inning. Kameron Misner and Jake Mangum led off the last inning with clutch hits. They would eventually be driven in to trim the deficit, but a pop-out from Rortvedt and a strikeout for Mead halted the rally and gave the Rays their 11th straight defeat on Jackie Robinson Day.

One of the most notable April 15th losses for the Rays was back in 2023. If you recall that remarkable start, Tampa Bay won their first 13 games of the season. Therefore, when the dreaded Jackie Robinson Day came around, their record was an impressive 13-1. The Rays would out-hit the division-rival Blue Jays 8-7, but leaving nine runners on base resulted in a 5-2 defeat. Hopefully, by April 15th, 2026, Kevin Cash has devised a plan to finally break the losing streak.