LA Angels forced Rays closer Pete Fairbanks into bizarre postgame meltdown

Pete Fairbanks doesn't need the media to critique his performance. He did a pretty fair job of that on his own. The Tampa Bay Rays closer was asked about his outing following the Los Angeles Angels ninth-inning come-from-behind victory on Wednesday, and Fairbanks said, "I thought it generally sucked."

But Fairbanks didn't stop there. The right-hander added insult to injury with further self-deprecating comments. "I didn't think it was a specific suck," Fairbanks said, "I think it was an all-encompassing type of suck, so we're going to try to rectify that."

Fairbanks was on the hill when the Angels made their ninth-inning comeback. Trailing 4-3, the tying-run came courtesy of an Anthony Rendon single down the third base line. It could have been the winning RBI, but upon replay review, Zach Neto was deemed to not have touched home plate before being tagged out by Rays' catcher René Pinto.

LA Angels forced Rays closer Pete Fairbanks into bizarre postgame meltdown

Thankfully for the Halos, Taylor Ward came up clutch. After Fairbanks issued an intentional walk to Mike Trout that put runners on first and second with two outs, Ward slapped a single into right field that allowed Rendon to score from second base.

Hunter Strickland, who surrendered the Angels' one-lead in the eighth inning, was called upon to finish the game off in the ninth. Ron Washington had just watched Strickland give up the Angels' 3-2 advantage with a two-run homer off the bat of Amed Rosario in the eighth, but trusted his reliever to get the final three outs, and that's exactly what Strickland did.

After getting the Angels' leadoff batter, Luis Rengifo, to ground out for the first out of the ninth inning, Fairbanks was just two outs away from closing the door. But a ninth-inning rally that included two walks, two stolen bases, three singles, and a coach's ejection, eventually resulted in loss for the Tampa. Fairbanks was right. He s--ked.

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