Walls delivers to lead Rays to victory

by Gary Shelton on October 1, 2023

in general

Walls knocked in the winning run./TIM WIRT

Sunday, 4 a.m.

Some days, you wonder why they don't charge Taylor Walls extra for his bats.

And some days, he takes a two-out single to right field to drive in the winning runs.

Ah, baseball.

Walls, the Rays' light-hitting shortstop, didn't offer a lot of hope as he walked to the plate in the top of the 10th inning Saturday. His batting average had dipped below .200 on the season, and he was oh-for-four on the afternoon.




Content beyond this point is for members only.

Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo). Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.








 But Walls lined the second pitch he saw -- a 100-mile an hour fastball from Jordan Hicks -- to right field to lead the Rays to a 7-5 victory. Walls drove in designated runner Osleivis Basebe and Josh Lowe -- who walked -- in to snap a 4-4 tie. Junior Caminero knocked in the seventh run with an infield single.

The Rays had 14 hits on the day to win their 98th game. Harold Ramirez had three -- including a two-run homer. Caminero, Isaac Paredes, Lowe and Christian Bethancourt all had two.

Both teams used seven pitchers on the day. Chris Devenski got the win with the final two innings of relief.

The Rays and Jays close out their season today. Neither team has announced a starter.

Previous post:

Next post: