Sunday, 4 a.m.
For an inning, Jared Jones seemed ripe for the picking.
He was wild. He was erratic. He was, frankly, in trouble.
Then he settled down, and the Tampa Bay Rays promptly cooled off in a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburg Pirates.
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Jones, who entered the game 4-6, struggled for an inning. He hit two batters, walked one, threw a wild pitch and gave up a run to the recently hot Rays.
Somehow, however, Jones found his rhythm. He went seven innings and allowed just three hits in the win. The Rays overall had only five hits (after getting 17 the night before). Aroldis Chapman got the save for the Pirates.
Starter Zach Eflin had mixed results for the Rays. He retired the last 14 batters he faced, but he gave up three runs in the third and gave up a 445-foot home run to Oneil Cruz.
Richie Palacios had two hits for the Rays after coming off the bench when Amed Rosario was hit in the face by a pitched ball.
Yandy Diaz doubled in a run in the ninth inning to stretch his hitting streak to 15 games (and his on-base streak to 24).
The teams play again today at 1:35 p.m. The Rays will start Aaron Civale against Paul Skenes.