Thursday, 4 a.m.
Perhaps the kids should pay closer attention to Randy Arozarena.
Arozarena, the Rays’ flamboyant outfielder, drilled a two-out home run in the ninth inning Wednesday to lead the team to a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins. It was the 90th victory of the year for Tampa Bay.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo). Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
There for a while, however, it seemed the Rays’ reliance on young players was going to come back to bite them. Taj Bradley had a good start, but he lost a 4-0 lead. Vidal Brujan had two errors. Curtis Mead had a double and a triple, but he eased up after hitting a ground ball and was out on a double play in the fifth.
In the end, none of it mattered after Arozarena hit his 22nd homer of the season, a 448-foot shot. Arozarena was hitting just .205 the previous two weeks and just .195 in September.
Arozarena, Yandy Diaz, Harold Ramirez and Mead all had two hits for the Rays.
Robert Stephenson got his first save by getting the final out.
The Rays open a four-game series against the Baltimore Orioles tonight at 7:15 p.m. at Camden Yards Aaron Civale will start for the Rays and Kyle Bradish will start for Baltimore.