Pepiot throws immaculate inning as part of career-high 12-K night

ST. PETERSBURG -- After being removed from his last start in Cleveland after two innings due to concerns about his diminished fastball velocity, Ryan Pepiot insisted he felt fine.

“Physically, feel good,” Pepiot said on Thursday afternoon. “Ready to go.”

Was he ever.

Pepiot authoritatively put any lingering concerns behind him by pitching six dominant innings in the Rays’ 2-1 loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field. The right-hander overpowered Boston’s lineup, racking up a career-high 12 strikeouts and 23 swinging strikes and recording the fourth immaculate inning in franchise history in the fifth.

“Definitely felt like I was in command of everything,” Pepiot said. “Mixed pitches, mixed locations, avoided the middle of the plate, didn't give them a whole lot of things that they could put damage on.”

Pepiot was as efficient as he was effective, needing only 76 pitches to breeze through six innings of work. His 12 strikeouts were the most by a Rays starter since Tyler Glasnow had 14 -- also against the Red Sox -- on Sept. 6, 2023. It was Pepiot’s 12th straight start allowing three earned runs or fewer, a career-best streak, and the longest such run by a Rays starter since Drew Rasmussen (also 12) from July 2-Sept. 9, 2022.

The only run Pepiot allowed came in the sixth, when Trevor Story hit a game-tying homer out to left. He permitted only one other hit, a leadoff double to Triston Casas in the third. He didn’t walk anybody, and in fact, only ran up a pair of three-ball counts all night -- both against Rafael Devers, whom he struck out three times.

“He was outstanding. Really impressed,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We talked about the season he's put together. Today was probably a highlight for him.”

Pepiot’s immaculate inning came in the fifth, when he picked up a trio of three-pitch strikeouts punctuated by fastballs. Connor Wong went down looking, then Wilyer Abreu and Casas went down swinging.

Pepiot said he realized what was happening after he recorded the first two strikeouts on six pitches, all fastballs. He was secretly hoping to turn the trick on nine fastballs, but relented when catcher Ben Rortvedt called for a first-pitch changeup to Casas.

It was Tampa Bay’s first immaculate inning since José Alvarado threw one against the Brewers on Aug. 4, 2017. The club’s first two came from Rafael Soriano and Brad Boxberger, making Pepiot the first starting pitcher in franchise history with an immaculate inning.

“Pretty good, huh? I mean, he's got really good stuff, and he had it all working today,” Rasmussen said. “Had the ability to create swing-and-miss the entire outing. It was pretty impressive what he did.”

Pepiot had the struggling Red Sox off-balance all night, as they whiffed on 23 of their 48 swings. They were particularly mystified by what Story called his “exploding fastball,” as Pepiot registered a career-high 15 swinging strikes with it. His heater averaged 94.6 mph, compared to his season average of 94.9, after clocking in at 93.6 mph on Thursday against the Guardians.

Pepiot reiterated that he “didn’t feel weird” last time out; the ball just wasn’t coming out of his hand the way it should. He felt no different on Wednesday, he said, but his stuff was back to normal, if not even better.

“I think we just had a good game plan going into it. Just attacked the zone,” Pepiot said. “Knew there were some guys that were pretty aggressive, so tried to utilize that and just use the fastball at the top of the zone and [let] everything else work on top of it.”

The Rays kept the Red Sox off the board after Pepiot’s exit thanks in large part to Christopher Morel, who made a spectacular leaping catch at the left-field wall to rob Casas of an RBI extra-base hit with two outs in the seventh. Rasmussen couldn’t hide his excitement as he watched the play unfold, raising both arms while his jaw dropped.

“What an athlete,” Rasmussen said. “It was a game-saver at the time.”

But the Rays only managed to score one run, and went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, stranding a pair in both the seventh and ninth innings. Their lack of support for Pepiot proved costly when the Sox scratched across the tiebreaking run in the eighth.

Trevor Story reached on a 57.7 mph infield single that Rasmussen couldn’t knock down, stole second and third, then scored the winning run on Jarren Duran’s single to right.

“It starts with a ball hit softly back to me that I don't knock down and play catch. It's not even necessarily the stolen bases, right?” Rasmussen said. “If I just make a play on a ball back to me, it makes no difference to begin with.”