Sunday, 4 a.m.
They don’t always hit. There are times they don’t pitch.
But, man, can they run.
Hand it to the Tampa Bay Rays. At any moment, they have the ability to turn a baseball game into a track meet. They can be slogging along, as if the game was just too much for them, and theyn, just like that, they can chase their opponent down and whiz past them.
Saturday night was that way. For most of the game, the Rays couldn’t get much going against Baltimore and nemesis Dean Kremer. A two-run deficit seemed insurmountable.
And then — zoom — they had pulled out a 4-3 victory.
Again, they didn’t win this one because of their bats, or because of their arms. They won this one on their legs.
In the eighth inning alone, the Rays stole three bases, took advantage of a wild pitch, scored two runs on a bases-loaded ground ball and took third on a fly ball.
They scored three times in the inning, two of the runs coming when Jonathan Aranda grounded out to first baseman Ryan O’Hearn. On the play, Chandler Simpson beat the throw home to score the go-ahead run, and when O’Hearn’s throw sailed wide, Jose Caballero scored.
Simpson had singled in Ha-Seong Kim for the Rays’ first run of the eighth.
Josh Lowe had driven in the Rays’ first run with a groundout to score Yandy Diaz, who had walked.
Simpson now has an 18-game hitting streak. He’s hitting .316 on the season.
Kim had two hits.
The Rays fell behind 2-0 in the first inning as Baltimore got three hits off of Zack Littell. Zittell, who went six innings, held the O’s to four hits and no runs afterward.
Edwin Uceta went two innings for the win. Pete Fairbanks notched his 16th save.
The Rays and Orioles finish their series today at 12:10 p.m. at Steinbrenner Field. Ryan Pepiot will start for the Rays against Trevor Rogers.