Corey Dickerson had two home runs for the Rays./TRAVIS PENDERGRASS
Wednesday, 2 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Rays don't hit the ball very often.
When they do, however, they hit it very far.
The Rays played long ball most of Tuesday night, hitting five home runs in a 6-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Tampa Bay hit five home runs – two of them by Corey Dickerson – to offset 16 more strikeouts.
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Beckham's two-run homer provided the winning runs./JEFFREY S. KING
The Rays now have 441 offensive strikeouts this year, far and away leading the majors.
“We talked about yesterday, and hopefully the offense would carry over,” said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. “The offense definitely carried over to this game and got us a good cushion.”
Tampa Bay built a 6-1 lead on its home runs – Colby Rasmus, Derek Norris and Tim Beckham also homered. Dickerson had his 17th multi-hit game, which leads the majors. He is hitting .333 on the season.
Rasmus and Beckham each had two-hit nights.
One of the stars for the Rays was reliever Jose Alvarado, who relieved Odorizzi and threw two hitless innings. Alvarado is only 21, giving the Rays' bullpen a bit of hope.
“We could have made a decision to go with someone else, but he was so good in the seventh,” Cash said of Alvarado. “We decided 'let's get him throw to (Michael) Brantley and see where we're at. It didn't make too much sense to take him out.”
Alex Colome came on in the ninth for his 10th save.
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