Thursday, 4 a.m.
They were up. They were down.
They blew it. They battled back to win it.
They were terrible. And they were terrific.
The Tampa Bay Rays were about to lose their third straight game to the bottom-crawling Seattle Mariners Wednesday afternoon. Instead, they won their third walkoff game in five games, winning a come-from-behind 7-6 victory when Willy Adames scored on a wild pitch.
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Kiermaier drove in four runs for the Rays./TIM WIRT
The win helped the Rays avoid a sweep at the hands of Seattle, which scored 22 runs in the three-game series.
The Rays gave up three runs in the ninth, but they rallied for two themselves. Kevin Kiermaier had the big hit, a home run for his fourth RBI of the night, before Adames won it by scoring on the wild pitch.
Adames scored the winning run./JEFFREY S. KING
The Rays went back-and-forth all day with Seattle. They took a 2-0 lead, then fell behind 3-2. They took a 5-3 lead, then blew the lead in the ninth before winning their sixth walkoff of the season.
“It was a needed win," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "Bottom line, maybe it wasn’t our prettiest baseball. Certainly over the last four, five days, it hasn’t been going that easy for us. Good to see the guys really fight through it and overcome some adversity. (Kiermaier), like you said, that was big just to tie it right there with the leadoff guy. And then we had some really
Brosseau had a key double in the ninth./TIM WIRT
good at-bats that pieced it together. Willy, Mike Brosseau set it up, and then they walked Ji-Man and forced a wild pitch. You understand why the guy’s a little wild when Tommy’s sitting at the plate. Things went our way that inning.”
Kiermaier had been 0-for-his-last-19 going into Tuesday night's game, but he's had four hits and five RBI over the last two games.
After his homer, Adames singled, Mike Brosseau doubled and J-Man Choi was walked. Mike Magill of the Mariners then had a wild pitch on his 1-1 pitch to Tommy Pham.
Morton stuggled in his five innings./CHUCK MULLER
“It felt great," Kiermaier said. "The game took a turn for us in the ninth inning there ,and I knew coming up right there to lead off the inning. I had to do something. I just wanted to get on base to be honest, but once I got back to a 3-2 count, I saw an out for a fastball and got one that I didn’t miss.
Heredia had a big game for Rays./TIM WIRT
"Huge at bats right there by Willy, Brosseau, Ji-Man with the intentional walk and Tommy having his eye up there – he’s not a guy that you want to pitch to in that situation. Given a curveball in the dirt right there that got away was the result of us winning. Tommy, being the hitter that he is, up there puts a lot of pressure on those pitchers and we did enough to win today.
"So, we’ll take it. I think you can call it an ugly win, whatever, as long as it ends with (a win), we’ll take as many as we can. I’ve got to give Guillermo Heredia some love because he had a huge homer, but made a play down the right field line that two runs probably would’ve scored and who knows what would’ve
Pagan struggled but got the win./JEFFREY S. KING
happened at that point of the game. I still think we had a lead, but that changes everything and that was huge. Like I said, we’ll take it any way possible. So this was a great bounce back win for us and it will be a happy flight and we really have to dig deep, look at ourselves in the mirror, do whatever, because we need to go handle some business in Baltimore and really start putting teams away again like we’re capable of.”
Guillermo Heredia was in a 1-for-23 slump, but he had two hits (including a homer) and made a nice catch in the outfield.
Charlie Morton started for the Rays, but he went only five innings in his no-decision.
“I thought Charlie was good," Cash said. "He had to really battle. I don’t know if he felt his best. Some days pitchers just don’t feel that good, like they’re out of sync a little bit. Talking
d'Arnaud had three hits for Rays./TIM WIRT
to Kyle throughout the game, it kind of presented that way. Certainly gave us everything he had. Pitch count got driven up right there in the 5th inning, but left with the lead which is good.”
Morton begged to differ.
“Pretty mediocrem" he said of his effort. "A battle. A battle to get through five right there. (d’Arnaud) did a good job sticking with me and the guys made a few really good plays behind me and backed me up with the bats. A good team win.”
Morton said it doesn't surprise him when the team comes from behind.
Poche threw two innings for Rays./TIM WIRT
“No, the guys want to win," he said. "It’s pretty simple. We are in a really good spot here. We are in contention to be in the playoffs with a little more than a month to go and the guys want to win. That’s what happened to today. They willed it, they willed it to happen.”
Cash praised his team for coming from behind.
“We’ve got to be resilient now," Cash said. "If we’re going to get down, we have to find a way to get back up, tie it, whatever it is. These guys are definitely equipped to do that. They’ve shown that throughout the year. We probably needed that now more than ever, just the way things have gone. We can’t walk off on the road. So we’re going to have to do some better things now and shake hands on the road.”
The Rays now play a four-game series against Baltimore. Tonight's game starts at 7:05 at Camden Yards, when the Rays' Ryan Yarbrough will pitch against Asher Wojciechowski.
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