Sooner or later it had to happen, and Tuesday night it did: El Asesino blew a save. And when the smoke cleared, the Diamondbacks had a 10-8 come-from-behind victory over the Devil Rays in front of a crowd of 19,761 at Chase Field.
Al Reyes has been money in the bank all season. Entering Tuesday night's game, the Rays closer was a perfect 16-for-16 in save opportunities, and he had accrued his impressive mark in dominating fashion. All season long, the team's mantra has been that if it could somehow survive and get to the ninth with the lead, it could hand the game over to Reyes to finish off the win.
Only it didn't happen Tuesday night. The Rays went to their one sure thing and did not get the result they have grown to count on.
"It happens at some point," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.
Reyes started the ninth and walked Carlos Quentin with one out before pinch-hitter Tony Clark connected for a two-run homer to tie the game at 8.
"I let the first guy get on, and then I left a hanging changeup up to Clark and he hit it good," Reyes said.
In an unusual twist for the manner in which Reyes normally is used, he came back out to pitch the 10th.
"I asked him if he was OK [to go two innings]," Maddon said. "I was not looking for that number of pitches [44]. He assured me that he was all right. He's going to be off [Wednesday], then we have an off-day the next day. So he'll get two days off now."
The results were extremely un-Reyes-like.
Conor Jackson singled off Reyes to lead off the 10th, and one out later, Chris Young hit his 10th home run of the season to complete the Diamondbacks' comeback.
"He battled good, and I tried to go with a slider," Reyes said. "And I left it up. He was looking for something up and he hit it good."
What makes Tuesday night's loss particularly hard to swallow was the fact that the Rays led, 8-2, after five innings. But like recent tough losses against the Blue Jays and Marlins, the Rays found a way to squander a big lead.
"It's unfortunate, another huge lead goes away," Maddon said. "That's the third one in the last, I don't know how many, days. That's hard. That's hard. When you lose those kinds of leads, it's difficult. We've got to stop doing that."
Akinori Iwamura set the tone for the Rays' offense when he led off the game with his second home run of the season. Delmon Young and Jonny Gomes added RBI singles, and Rays starter J.P. Howell had a 3-0 lead before he threw his first pitch.



Carl Crawford singled home two in the second, and Ty Wigginton added a two-run homer in the fourth to put the Rays up, 7-1. Iwamura added a sacrifice fly in the fifth, but after that, the Rays' bats went silent.
Rays hitters had their way with Diamondbacks starter Doug Davis. But once Davis left after four innings, the Rays managed one run on one hit over the next five innings against a parade of Arizona relievers that included Jailen Peguero, Juan Cruz, Tony Pena and Brandon Lyon -- who picked up his fifth win of the season.
"Their bullpen beat us tonight," Maddon said. "They beat us."
While the Rays have had experience at losing big leads this season, they have shown a resiliency to bounce back the next day -- a sentiment echoed by Reyes.
"You try to stay positive," Reyes said. "You don't think like you're going to blow the save. I just try to stay positive. It happened tonight. And I'll come back tomorrow and try to get back on track."
Added Maddon: "Another short night tonight. Come back tomorrow. I know our guys will play it hard. It's just one of those things. We've got to stop doing it. Stop doing it. It's difficult. But I know our guys will be fine by tomorrow."



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