Sunday, 4 a.m.
Maybe you might have suspected this from Yandy Diaz.
Ninth inning. Two outs. A runner on second.
And a single to left.
Maybe you would have believed Jonathan Aranda. Or Brandon Lowe. Or Junior Caminero. Or someone else.
But Travis Jankowski?
Really?
Jankowski, a 33-year-old journeyman who is with the Rays largely because of injuries, slapped a 2-1 pitch to left field to drive in Kameron Misner with the winning run in a 3-2 victory over Milwaukee. Jankowski had 20 at bats with the Rays before the hit.
Jankowski has 1,542 at bats but had never had a walk-off hit before, and is a lifetime .236 hitter. This year, he is hitting .286 with the Rays. He had two hits and a sacrifice fly on Saturday.
It was the Rays’ third walk-off win of the year. Misner had one against Colorado and Aranda had one against the Yankees.
The Rays were in position to win because of a strong start by Taj Bradley, who went six innings and allowed two runs and four hits. Pete Fairbanks got the win after working out of a bases-loaded situation in the ninth. Two of the three base-runners reached on errors.
Tampa Bay fell behind 1-0 on a home run by Jackson Chourio, but came back for a 2-1 lead on an RBI single by Taylor Walls and the sacrifice fly by Jankowski.
The Rays and Brewers wrap up their three-game series today at 1:40 p.m. at Steinbrenner Field. Drew Rasmussen will start for the Rays against Chad Patrick.