1 more game and Rays are done with NL Central -- to their immense relief

ST. PETERSBURG -- The American League East has earned its reputation as the toughest division in baseball. This year, all five clubs in the division entered the season with legitimate hopes of playing postseason baseball. They’ve all made the playoffs at some point in the past three seasons, and the last two AL champs came out of the East.

But don’t blame the Rays if a little AL East competition is starting to sound good. Their time as the National League Central’s honorary sixth member hasn’t gone so well.

The Rays’ 12-6 loss to the Reds on Tuesday night at Tropicana Field guaranteed a series defeat against Cincinnati. Not even a month into the season, the Rays have faced every team in the NL Central and lost all five series to the Cardinals (1-2), Brewers (1-2), Cubs (1-2), Pirates (1-2) and Reds (0-2, with one left to play Wednesday afternoon).

The NL Central has been one of the early surprises of the season, with all five clubs owning a winning record, and that division’s success has come at the Rays’ expense. Tampa Bay has gone 4-10 against the NL Central and 8-1 against its three AL opponents this season.

“No doubt it's a talented division,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said Tuesday afternoon, “and I'm guessing we'll be happy to be done with them here soon.”

Cash acknowledged the “weird” quirk of the schedule before the Rays lost Monday’s series opener. Stuff like this is bound to happen, as clubs have been facing each of the other 29 teams every season since 2023. Tampa Bay just so happens to have caught the entire division at the wrong time.

Rays starter Nick Martinez, who pitched for the Reds from 2024-25, said he isn’t surprised to see what’s taking place in the NL Central. He noted the recent success of the Brewers and Cubs, the Reds’ appearance in the playoffs last year and the way the Pirates have supplemented their young core with key veterans.

“Even though it's early, it's a division that should be fun to watch,” Martinez said.

And the Rays certainly weren’t at their best the past two nights.

After wasting a pair of bases-loaded opportunities and making a few costly mistakes in the field in the series opener, the Rays fell behind quickly on Tuesday, the first game they’ve lost with left-hander Steven Matz on the mound.

Matz said he was “fighting” himself throughout his fifth start of the season, falling behind in counts and unable to locate his offspeed stuff in the strike zone. That was evident as he walked four batters after issuing only six free passes in his first 21 1/3 innings with Tampa Bay.

And when Matz had to fire a fastball over the plate in a hitter’s count, the Reds made him pay by blasting a trio of home runs: an opposite-field laser by Elly De La Cruz in the first inning and back-to-back shots by Ke’Bryan Hayes and Dane Myers in the second.

“It's just not who I am as a pitcher,” Matz said. “I'm a strike-thrower, I'm attacking the zone a lot, and today I just wasn't able to do that.”

Matz needed 77 pitches (44 strikes) to record nine outs on the night, putting a heavy load on a Rays bullpen that has the third-worst ERA (5.70) in the Majors. The game spiraled away from Tampa Bay after that, as Griffin Jax yielded two runs, Hunter Bigge allowed three -- one of them on a crazy slide home by Myers -- and Yoendrys Gómez surrendered two.

“Our bullpen right now, they're probably scuffling a little bit. They've been worked pretty hard,” Cash said. “We've just got to do a better job of throwing the ball over the plate a little bit more consistently and avoiding some of those leadoff walks or hit-by-pitches, whatever. It's just putting traffic out there really early.”

Jonathan Aranda hit a two-run homer off starter Chase Burns in the sixth inning, but most of the Rays’ offense -- including a pair of bases-loaded walks and a two-run double by Jonny DeLuca -- came with the game well out of hand in the ninth.

Trailing by nine runs after eight innings, Cash turned to infielder Ben Williamson to pitch the ninth.

Williamson, the first Rays position player to pitch since José Caballero did so in a 22-8 defeat in Baltimore last June 27, allowed a solo homer to De La Cruz but saved the bullpen from having to handle another inning in what he figured was his first pitching appearance since a brief stint as closer in high school.

“It felt kind of weird, like out of place,” Williamson said. “But at the end of the day, I had to do it.”