NEW YORK -- The Rays’ bullpen has been playing with fire of late.

On Sunday, for example, right-hander Jason Adam immediately bent over, his head down with both hands on his knees, thinking he had served up a game-tying home run to Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, but the ball was caught by center fielder Jose Siri to end the game. Obviously, Adam was relieved.

But Tampa Bay’s bullpen wasn’t so lucky on Wednesday night and blew two leads in its 8-7 loss in 10 innings to the Mets at Citi Field. In the ninth, the Rays had a 5-2 lead, but Adam blew his third save opportunity this season.

He walked Daniel Vogelbach on four pitches and then hit Starling Marte with a pitch to start the inning. But then Adam struck out Brett Baty and induced Mark Vientos to fly out. With the Rays just one out away from ending the game, Francisco Álvarez tied it with a three-run homer. Adam was bothered more by the walks than by the home run he allowed to Álvarez.

“Any time you give a free pass to any hitter, that's frustrating. A solo home run, we still win the ballgame,” Adam said. “Home runs happen. [The walks] bit me more than the home run.”

Even after all of that, Tampa Bay took a 7-5 lead in the top of the 10th inning on RBI singles by Harold Ramírez and Josh Lowe. In came Pete Fairbanks to try to close it out. It was his first appearance since coming off the injured list on Monday. But he had an outing he would like to forget.

With one out and runners on first and third, Pete Alonso hit a monster home run over the left-center-field wall to end the game. The exit velocity was clocked at 112.3 mph and the ball traveled 416 feet.

“Pete Alonso is probably the wrong guy you want hitting in that situation. He can knock the ball out of the ballpark against anybody. He did,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.

Said Fairbanks on the home run, “He got it. Just a very unfortunate time to be the lesser Pete. When we get out there tomorrow and try to get him in the same spot.”

The Mets had lost 10 of their past 14 games prior to Wednesday’s action, but Alonso had a feeling the Mets were going to win the game.    

“From pitch to pitch, inning to inning, there's never a doubt in our minds,” Alonso said. “We keep fighting every single day, every single pitch, every out. And that's all we can do -- do the best we can and we'll see how it lays. But today, we did an amazing job fighting. We did an amazing job executing. This was an amazing team win."

Fairbanks was so angry about allowing the game-winning home run that he went into the batting cage and hit balls just as hard as the one Alonso hit.

“I processed it, and now it’s time to get ready for tomorrow,” Fairbanks said.

Fairbanks, who went on the IL on May 3 (retroactive to April 30) due to inflammation in his right forearm, near his wrist, said he felt fine even though it was windy and the gametime temperature was 60 degrees. 

“I feel good,” he said. “That is not a crutch I’m going to fall back on. I’m going to do everything to take care of it. Tonight felt good. I was unfortunately on the wrong side of things.”

If there was any good news from Wednesday’s loss, it appears that Brandon Lowe is out of his slump. He went into the three-game series against New York mired in a 4-for-48 skid. In his last two games, Lowe has busted out, going 4-for-8 with a home run. 

“He is hitting the ball hard. He is laying off pitches he was swinging at a week ago,” Cash said. “He is getting himself in better counts. When they come into the zone, it seems like he is really on time ready to hit.”