Apr 17, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero (13) loses his bat on a swing against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the sixth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images | Philip G.

Pavely-Imagn Images All winning streaks eventually come to an end.The Rays came into Friday night looking like a team that had figured out a little something. They had won six straight games, scored at least five runs in all six of those games. Instead, it turned into one of those games that spends six innings pretending to be winnable before the bottom falls out in part thanks to a former player in their revenge debut.The first clue that this might be a long night for the Rays offense came immediately.

Chandler Simpson lined out, Junior Caminero struck out, Jonathan Aranda struck out, and Bubba Chandler looked very much like a guy who knew he had premium stuff and planned to use all of it. Tampa Bay did not get much going early, and for the first five innings the offense mostly existed as an obligatory part of the game. Nick Fortes had a single in the third, and that was basically the entire Rays attack for a while.

To Nick Martinez’s credit, he kept the game from getting away when it easily could have. The Pirates scored first in the second on Spencer Horwitz’s RBI double after a Marcell Ozuna leadoff single, but Chandler Simpson launched a throw to cut dowj Horwitz at the plate later in the inning, which felt important then and even more important later when the score still sat at 1-0 for what felt like three business days but was actually 5 innings.Chandler Simpson cuts down a runner at the plate to take away an RBI from Konnor Griffin pic.twitter.com/XwGGZRyJTd— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 17, 2026And really, that was the frustrating part.

This was not a total blowout from the jump. Martinez bent plenty, but he did not break. Pittsburgh left runners on the bases in the third and fourth, and gave the Rays multiple chances to hang around for a comeback.

Martinez worked through runners on second and third in the third, then escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth when Brandon Lowe flew out to left. Ben Williamson chipped in a very nice diving stop in the fifth. Cedric Mullins made a smooth sliding catch in the seventh.

There were little pockets where the Rays looked like a team ready to steal an ugly one. They just never followed the defensive plays with enough offense to make them matter. Your browser does not support the video tag.

Download the video.Then came the sixth, which briefly felt like the moment things would turn. Chandler Simpson reached on a single with two outs, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and suddenly the Rays had a pulse. Caminero followed with a single to center, Simpson scored, and just like that it was 1-1.For a minute, it looked like they had done the Rays thing again, where they spend most of the night looking like a loss is coming and then quietly appear with the tying run anyway.

Jonathan Aranda drew a walk after that, too, so there was at least a hint of more. But Chandler got Yandy Díaz to pop out, and the inning stopped right there. That was the window.

It was open, then it was slammed shut.Because the bottom of the sixth was where the game got away. O’neil Cruz did what star players do when a game is sitting there waiting for someone to claim it. On a 2-2 pitch with Konnor Griffin on 3rd, he drove one 385 feet to right-center, and the game flipped for the final time.

Tie game, then not tie game.Oneil Cruz go-ahead homer! pic.twitter.com/hMLwD4Zt39— MLB (@MLB) April 18, 2026After the sixth, the Rays never really mounted the kind of push that makes a late comeback feel real. Jake Fraley singled in the seventh and stole second, but the Rays could not cash that in. Gregory Soto retired the Rays in order in the top of the eighth.

Then came the extra twist of the knife in the bottom half. Yoendrys Gómez walked Horwitz and Griffin, Billy Cook stole second after entering as a pinch-runner, Henry Davis moved both runners up with a sac bunt, Cruz struck out, and it looked like maybe the Rays would escape with the damage limited. Then Brandon Lowe, facing his former club in the first series against them since leaving Tampa Bay, worked a full count and ripped a two-run double off the center-field wall.

Of course he did.. Why merely lose a game when you can also be forced to watch a familiar face help bury you?Brandon Lowe provides two huge insurance runs for the @Pirates! pic.twitter.com/8jOEfcsyTM— MLB (@MLB) April 18, 2026The ninth had one last glimmer of hope. Yandy doubled, Williamson walked, and for a second the tying run was on deck with two outs, providing the illusion of a comeback opportunity.

Cedric Mullins eventually popped out in foul territory, and that was that. Final score, 5-1.The Rays finished with five hits and saw their six-game winning streak end one night after coming to Pittsburgh with a lot of moment