Dunedin Blue Jays fall 4-3 to Tampa Tarpons as late lead slips away

Dunedin brings the power, Tampa gets the last word

The Dunedin Blue Jays had the swing that could have carried the conversation home across the bay. Josh Rivera went deep, Raimundo De Los Santos came around, and a tight game suddenly leaned Dunedin’s way.

Unfortunately, Tampa still had a bat in its hands. Several, as it turned out.

The Blue Jays fell 4-3 on the road to the Tampa Tarpons on 2026-09-06, losing a lead built on home-run power to a club with a little more of it. Dunedin hit two homers. Tampa hit three. The decisive run, just to keep the evening from becoming entirely a distance contest, scored on a double.

For Pinellas fans following from St. Pete, Clearwater, Dunedin or the beaches, this was the kind of result that turns a comfortable watch into a discussion nobody asked to have. The Blue Jays had the advantage. They just couldn’t get it home.

A lead with a short shelf life

Tampa opened the scoring in the first inning when Paul Gutierrez-Contreras II drove a homer to left center. Owen Carapellotti answered in the second with a fly ball over the fence in right. Early problem, prompt response. Nothing wrong with that arrangement.

The score stayed level until the sixth, when Rivera sent a fly ball to center for a homer with De Los Santos scoring ahead of him. That gave Dunedin a 3-1 lead and supplied the biggest chunk of its offense.

Rivera finished 1-for-4 with a run, two RBI and a home run. One hit, plenty of substance. If you’re going to make a limited number of appearances in the hit column, that’s a useful way to spend one.

But Tampa immediately started trimming the margin. Yostin Pena homered to left center in the bottom of the sixth, pulling the Tarpons within a run.

Then came the seventh. Anthony Potestio homered to right to tie it. Brando Mayea followed in the scoring account with a line-drive double to left fielder Brayden Martin, bringing Luis Escudero home for the lead.

Dunedin didn’t score again. The sixth-inning cushion had become a seventh-inning deficit, and that was the ballgame. No elaborate explanation required, which somehow makes it more irritating.

Plenty to discuss, not much to celebrate

Deiker Pineda’s line deserves a place in the conversation: three innings, one hit, one earned run and four strikeouts. Anthony Mena’s listed work for Tampa was also lean, with two hits and one earned run allowed over 3.2 innings.

The broader offensive picture was straightforward. Dunedin got all its runs from the Carapellotti and Rivera homers. Tampa left nine runners on base, but its power kept those missed opportunities from deciding the result. Mayea’s double supplied the difference.

That’s the talking point for the next tailgate in Dunedin or a game watched with friends around Clearwater, St. Pete and the beaches: the Blue Jays did enough to take control, not enough to keep it. Two good swings bought a lead, not a win.

Check the team schedule for the next game, revisit the full game log, or follow more Dunedin Blue Jays coverage on Pinellas Podcast.

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