Thursday, 4 a.m.
On a night that home plate seemed elusive for the Tampa Bay Rays, it came down to this:
They needed a little help.
The Rays, who let repeated scoring opportunities evade them the entire game, won a 3-2, 10-inning game over the Minnesota Twins when Royce Lewis spiked a throw to third on a grounder hit by Jonny DeLuca with two outs. That allowed Randy Arozarena to score the eventual winning run.
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The Rays had loaded the bases in the seventh and eighth inning, only to see the Twins make nice defensive plays to keep the game tied. Austin Martin made a leaping catch on a liner by Yandy Diaz, and Carlos Correa made a nice play forcing an out at third when his momentum took him deep into the hole.
In the 10th, the Rays seemed to have run themselves out of a chance to score when Jose Siri tried to take third on a wild pitch. But the ball caromed right back to catcher Christian Vazquez, who threw Siri out at third.
For the Rays, that’s the way it seemed to be going. They just couldn’t figure out the directions back to the plate.
For the night, the Rays left 12 runners on base and were one-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
So how did they pull the game out? Well, by pitching.
Starter Taj Bradley went six innings and allowed just two earned runs. The bullpen followed with four pitchers throwing a shutout inning each. Phil Maton, who has been roughed up lately, got his second save on just five pitches.
Yandy Diaz, Arozarena, Isaac Paredes and Ben Rortvedt all had two hits.
The Rays have now won 35 games (39 losses), but 25 of them have been by one run.
The Rays and Twins finish their series today at 1:10 p.m. at Target Field. Zack Littell will start for the Rays against Simeon Woods Richardson.