BRADENTON (620 WDAE) -- Alex Cobb worked into the sixth inning, and both Patrick Leonard and Steven Souza Jr. honered, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Tampa Bay Rays from being swept in a home-and-home series with the Pittsburgh Pirates. They drop the back half of the series 5-4 Tuesday at LECOM Park (formerly McKechnie Field).
Cobb's first inning saw him give up a two-run homer to former Ray John Jaso to open the scoring, but Tampa Bay rallied in the second and third. Casey Gillaspie started the second with a double, scoring on a base hit by Nick Franklin, and Leonard and Souza each belted solo homers in the third, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.
The Rays starter would hold on to the lead only until the fourth, when Jose Osuna doubled, took third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
The game remained even until the top of the eighth, as Kean Wong singled, took second on an errant pickoff throw, and eventually scored on a base hit by Daniel Robertson.
Pittsburgh rallied in the bottom of the inning to tie the game thanks to a Jacob Stallings homer off Jaime Schultz, and in the ninth, the righty allowed a two-out walk to Adam Frazier, who stole second and scored on a base hit by Gift Ngoepe to win the game.
TampaBay head to Sarasota Wednesday night, with Chris Archer getting the start against Chris Lee. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05, with coverage sarting on WDAE at 6:00.