Tuesday, 4 a.m.
Don’t look now, but suddenly, Zack Littell is pitching like an ace.
Why not? It was his turn.
Littell led the Tampa Bay Rays to their sixth straight win Monday night, a 7-2 win where the Rays ran away from the Minnesota Twins in the late going.
It was the sixth straight start the Rays have won behind Littell, who is 4-0 since April 27. He has put an 0-5 start in his rear view mirror.
This time, Littell threw six shutout innings of three-hit baseball. He needed just 72 pitches.
Jonathan Aranda hit a three-run homer off of Chris Paddack to give the Rays a 3-0 lead.
Still, the Twins made it a game when Carlos Correa hit a two-run homer off of reliever Garrett Cleavinger.
The Rays put the game away with a four-run eighth inning. Two of the runs came on a double by Jose Caballero and the other two on a home run by Danny Jansen.
The Rays got two hits each from Brandon Lowe, Junior Caminero, Aranda and Kameron Misner.
The Rays now have the longest winning streak in major league baseball. They try to win their seventh straight against the Twins at Steinbrenner field at 7:05 p.m.Taj Bradley will start for the Rays against Joe Ryan.