Saturday, 3 a.m.
One night, Manuel Margot wins a game with his legs.
The next, Brandon Lowe wins one with his butt.
That's the thing about the Rays. Sometimes, it takes all parts to get past the opposition.
The Rays won a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels Friday night when Lowe was hit in the rear with the bases loaded in the, um, bottom of the seventh inning Friday night.
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It was the 500th win for manager Kevin Cash, and it came in front of his predecessor Joe Madden (who has 754 for the Rays). Once again, Cash relied on a strong bullpen and assorted body parts for the win.
"When other teams gives you an inch, you take a mile from it," Cash said. "It felt like that tonight. It comes down to putting pressure on teams by putting people on base."
The Rays trailed 2-0 after four batters when both Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon homered off of Andrew Kittredge. But the Angels scored only once afterward.
The Rays came back in the bottom of the first to score three runs, two of them on a two-run single by Austin Meadows. Meadows and Kevin Kiermaier each had three hits on the night.
The bullpen, which is the best in the American League statistically, went seven innings and gave up just three hits and no earned runs. Colin McHugh pitched 1 1/3 innings of shutout baseball to get the win.
"Since he has come back from the IL, he might be pitching as well as any reliever in baseball ," Cash said. "We’ve used him in different ways. Whatever gap we’re trying to get him to bridge, he’s doing it at a very high level."
The Rays will play the Angels again today at 4:10 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Shane McClanahan will start for Tampa Bay against former Ray Alex Cobb.