Sunday, 4 a.m.
A dozen times, they lost the game, and most of them were painful. There were walks and errors and blown leads and a leaky bullpen.
Thirteen times, they won it, and most of them were euphoric. There were comebacks and walk-offs and home runs and clutch hits.
In the end, the Rays won it once more than they lost it, somehow hanging on to win 7-6 over Toronto.
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The Rays had heroes, and they had goats, but in the end, Josh Lowe singled to left to walk it off for the 11th time of the season.
The Rays had jumped to a 5-0 lead, impressive when you consider the Rays played without their second baseman, without their left-fielder and without their centerfielder. But then there was the implosion by the bullpen.
The home runs were by Yandy Diaz (who had four hits), Lowe (who had three) and Christian Bethancourt.
But the Jays came back, getting four straight hits against Shawn Armstrong and three straight walks (and a wild pitch) by Pete Fairbanks. The Jays took a 6-5 lead in the eighth.
The Rays rallied in the ninth, however, on Diaz’s double, Harold Ramirez’s single and a single by Curtis Mead (that tied it). After Junior Caminero beat out a double play (on review), Lowe went to the opposite field for the winning hit.
Ramirez threw out Whit Merrifield at the plate in the seventh inning.
The Rays have now won 95 games on the season.
Tampa Bay and Toronto play again today at 1:10 p.m. Taj Bradley will start for the Rays against Yusei Kikuchi.