Friday, 4 a.m.
He is in charge of forgiveness. He can make you forget about shortcomings, forget all the bonehead plays. He can make you ignore his batting average.
When the game gets tight, Jose Siri can take over.
Siri’s heroics led the Rays to a 7-6, 10 -inning victory over the Minnesota Twins Thursday. Chris Devenski? He made you forget about him. Pete Fairbanks? He’s forgiven. Fifteen men left in scoring position? No sweat.
Siri is in charge.
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Siri hit a ninth-inning home run for the Rays, but his best play came in the bottom of the 10th. He roamed far to his left to catch a fly ball off the bat of Carlos Correa, then spun and threw out Royce Lewis at third for the double play.
In his last 20 games, Siri is hitting .271 with 13 RBI.
The Rays seemed to be in good shape in the late innings. In the ninth, with a 3-2 lead, Siri and Yandy Diaz both homered to give the Rays a 6-2 lead. But Minnesota rallied, getting three straight baserunners off of Devenski and then getting a three-run homer from Jose Miranda with two strikes.
Tampa Bay came back with a two-strike single of their own, this one by Jonny DeLuca, for the win.
Diaz and Siri each had two hits for Tampa Bay.
Rays’ starter Zack Littell held the Twins to two earned runs and five hits in five innings.
The Rays had hoped not to use Fairbanks, who had taken a line drive off to his hand Tuesday night. But he went two innings to pick up the win.
The Rays open a three-game series today at Pittsburgh at 6:40 p.m,. Ryan Pepiot will start against a pitcher to be named.