Tuesday, 3 a.m.
The long ball took the night off.
The long streak, however, lives on.
The Tampa Bay Rays won again Monday night, running their record to a record-tying 21-3 with their 14th straight win at home. For the first time all season, the Rays won without a home run.
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Even without hitting one over the fence, however, the Rays' offense remained potent. Wander Franco had four hits, and Randy Arozarena had a double and a triple, and Christian Bethancourt had a two-run single.
Franco, hitting .318 on the season, also had the catch of the game, a barehanded grab of a pop foul off the bat of Martin Maldonado.
"The amount t of ground he covered ...," marveled Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "I can’t tell if he caught it barehanded by design of if the glove couldn’t go any farther that way and the and was there to catch it."
Rookie Taj Bradley won his third game of the season, but he struggled early. He gave up just four hits, but two were solo homers and one was a triple.
The Rays scored four times in the fourth, including back-to-back walks by Harold Ramirez and Isaac Paredes and back-to-back two-strike hits by Josh Lowe. (an infield single he beat out) and Bethancourt.
Second baseman Brandon Lowe had a difficult night, going 0-5 with five strikeouts, all of them with runners in scoring position.
The Rays play Houston again tonight at 6:40 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Luis Garcia.