Cedric Mullins homered among his four hits and scored three times, fueling the Tampa Bay Rays to a 7-2 victory over the Miami Marlins on Friday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Yandy Diaz belted a two-run homer and Taylor Walls drove in three runs to lift the Rays to their 11th straight win at home and 17th in their last 20 games overall.
Jesse Scholtens (4-2) relieved opener Ian Seymour and allowed one run on five hits in five innings.
Connor Norby launched a solo homer in the second inning and Jakob Marsee did the same in the sixth for the Marlins, who have lost three of their last four games.
Jonathan Aranda worked a two-out walk in the first inning before Diaz deposited a first-pitch sweeper from Janson Junk (2-4) over the wall in left field. Diaz’s homer was his sixth of the season and first since May 1.
Norby halved the deficit in the second after sending a 1-1 fastball from Seymour over the wall in left-center field.
Tampa Bay tacked on two more runs in its half of the second, courtesy of Hunter Feduccia’s sacrifice fly to deep left field and Mullins’ head-first slide to beat the throw from first baseman Christopher Morel.
Walls’ grounder set up that play and his double to right field in the fourth inning plated a pair of runs to extend the Rays’ lead to 6-1.
Marsee chipped into the deficit by sending a 2-1 fastball from Scholtens over the wall in right field before Mullins responded in the bottom of the sixth. He deposited a 1-1 slider from Junk over the wall in right field for his third homer of the season.
Junk fell to 0-2 in his last three outings after permitting seven runs on 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
