ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays¡¯ 8-6 win over the Red Sox on Tuesday night was not pretty.
They let the Red Sox turn an early three-run lead into a one-run margin, then coughed up another three-run lead entirely. They committed two errors, plus a few more costly defensive gaffes and a late baserunning blunder on top of those. They had only six hits on the night, including just three in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position, and couldn¡¯t score a runner from third base with nobody out in the 10th inning.
But winning is all that really matters this time of year, so despite all their mistakes and regrets, the Rays were plenty happy to celebrate when Brandon Lowe clobbered a three-run, walk-off homer off Boston right-hander Kenley Jansen to cap a nearly four-hour affair in the 11th inning.
¡°We understood that we shouldn't have been in that situation. We probably should have won that in nine if our defense had picked up our slack to play up to what our pitchers were doing,¡± Lowe said after his second career walk-off homer, with both coming this season. ¡°But it's September. Any win that we can grab at this moment, we're going to take it.¡±
- Games remaining: vs. BOS (1), vs. SEA (4), at MIN (3), at BAL (4), vs. LAA (3), vs. TOR (3), at BOS (2), at TOR (3)
- Standings update: The Orioles maintained their 3 1/2-game lead over the Rays in the AL East. The Rays remain the top AL Wild Card team, the club that gets to host a three-game Wild Card Series against the AL¡¯s No. 5 seed.
Fittingly, it was Lowe on the wrong end of the Rays¡¯ final frustrating play in the field.
With automatic runner Rob Refsnyder on third base and one out in the 11th inning, Luis Ur¨ªas hit a pop-up to shallow right field off Erasmo Ram¨ªrez, the Rays¡¯ seventh reliever of the night. Lowe went a long way to slide under it, but the ball bounced off his glove and eventually landed for a go-ahead single.
¡°Always have that notion that [if] it hit your glove, you should have caught it,¡± Lowe said.
But Lowe said he didn¡¯t carry that aggravation to the plate when he came up against Jansen. For that, he credited Yandy D¨ªaz, who fouled off four pitches and took four more to work a leadoff walk. By the time Lowe stepped into the batter¡¯s box, he¡¯d had time to put his near-miss behind him.
¡°It gave me a lot of time to work out whatever demons I was fighting with at that moment,¡± Lowe said. ¡°I know he probably didn't want that at-bat to go quite that long, but it helped me a little bit.¡±
Lowe unloaded on Jansen¡¯s 2-2 cutter, clubbing it a projected 393 feet down the right-field line with an exit velocity of 110.7 mph, then chucked his bat with one hand and shouted into the home dugout before trotting around the bases.
¡°It was awesome. No better guy to do the job than Brandon,¡± starter Zach Eflin said. ¡°It was a sloppy game, to say the least about the entire thing. ¡ But [we] ultimately found a way to win, and Brandon came up clutch.¡±?
Eflin was unhappy with his own performance, colorfully saying, ¡°I think the best way to describe it would be I felt, like, butt-naked stranded on an island somewhere in the middle of the ocean.¡± But no matter how lost he felt, Eflin giving up three runs was perhaps the least of anybody¡¯s issues on the night.
The Rays held a three-run lead after five innings on a Jonathan Aranda triple that the Red Sox lost in the dome, a two-run homer by Ren¨¦ Pinto and back-to-back run-scoring hit batsmen. But relievers Colin Poche and Kevin Kelly had to strand the bases loaded just to preserve a two-run lead in the sixth.
Then the Rays made a bunch of mistakes behind right-hander Shawn Armstrong in the seventh, most notably a Triston Casas pop-up down the left-field line that deflected off third baseman Isaac Paredes¡¯ glove for a game-tying single as he and shortstop Vidal Bruj¨¢n converged under the ball.
¡°We do a lot of good things defensively,¡± manager Kevin Cash said. ¡°Tonight was not one of our stronger nights.¡±
The Rays also had two runners on with one out in the eighth when Lowe sliced a sinking line drive to left field. Aranda initially watched the ball¡¯s trajectory then took off for third, which led to him being doubled up at second when Masataka Yoshida slid to make the play. They had an even better opportunity in the 10th, putting a runner on third with nobody out, but saw that rally fizzle when Adam Duvall cut down Josh Lowe at the plate on a flyout to right.
¡°We won. That's basically what it comes down to,¡± Cash said. ¡°If we can find a way to win sloppy for the rest of this month, I'll be really happy.¡±
By the time they left the ballpark late Tuesday night, the Rays didn¡¯t care how pretty it might have looked.
¡°It's a beautiful game,¡± D¨ªaz said through interpreter Manny Navarro, ¡°because we came out on top.¡±