Wednesday, 4 a.m.
The home run itself was a thing of beauty, high and far and tucked just inside the line. Sudden victory is always a gorgeous thing, and it was no less when the ball flew off the bat of Brandon Lowe.
And it ended, to be blunt, perhaps the worst game ever played in the history of major league baseball.
This was 11 innings of rough highway. The game featured 15 pitchers, 26 strikeouts, 12 walks, four errors
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(that should have been more if not for a kindly scorekeeper), two bases-loaded hit by pitches, a wild pitch and suspect base running.
In the end, Lowe ended it on a 2-2 pitch with his 393-foot shot to right field.
It was Lowe’s third walk-off hit of the season. He is tied for the team lead with Randy Arozarena.
The Rays jumped to a 3-0 lead behind Rene Pinto’s two-run homer. But the Rays had only three hits through the first eight innings.
The Rays and Red Sox finish their series tonight at 6:40 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Tyler Glasnow will start for Tampa Bay against a yet-to-be named starter for the Red Sox.