Yandy Diaz’s go-ahead double in a three-run 10th inning enabled the struggling Tampa Bay Rays to beat the Minnesota Twins 7-5 Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
In a 4-all game, Diaz, who had two hits, lined a run-scoring double to right and later scored on a throwing error by Justin Topa (1-3). Junior Caminero’s sacrifice fly added an insurance run.
Jonathan Aranda went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, and Caminero drove in a pair. Taylor Walls hit a solo homer.
On his 31st birthday, Brandon Lowe was removed from the game after whiffing in his lone at-bat, ending his team record-tying 20-game hitting streak shared with Diaz. It was reported that Lowe was dealing with left side soreness.
Starter Drew Rasmussen tossed just two frames and allowed one run on three hits with two strikeouts.
Pete Fairbanks (4-2) and Eric Orze (third save) pitched the final 2 2/3 innings as the Rays won for just the third time in nine games.
Minnesota’s Byron Buxton (two hits) and Harrison Bader hit home runs. Bader plated a run on a groundout in the bottom of the 10th before Orze shut the Twins down.
Starter Joe Ryan tossed six innings and allowed two runs on six hits. The right-hander struck out eight with a walk.
With both Rasmussen and Ryan entering the game with ERAs under 2.79, pitching took center stage.
However, Buxton slugged his 20th home run a Statcast-projected 414 feet to left center to open the bottom of the first after Ryan struck out the side in the top half.
Not in the original lineup but inserted before the game began, Walls belted his third homer for the visitors’ first hit leading off the third to tie it.
Tampa Bay took its first lead in the fourth when Aranda ripped a single to right to plate Jose Caballero, who had replaced Lowe at second base and doubled.
In the sixth, Trevor Larnach (two hits, double) knotted it 2-all when he avoided a tag at home by catcher Matt Thaiss after a two-out fielding error by Caballero.
Caminero’s RBI fielder’s choice and reliever Griffin Jax’s fielding error made it 4-2 Rays in the eighth, but pinch hitter Bader responded with a two-run homer to left off Mason Montgomery to even it 4-4 in the bottom half.
–Field Level Media
