'Just a really fun game': Lowes lead late rallies for walk-off win

ST. PETERSBURG -- For a moment, it seemed Josh Lowe had finally given the Rays the timely hit they’ve so desperately needed. With two on and two outs in the eighth inning, Lowe blooped a single to left field off former teammate Ryan Thompson that put Tampa Bay ahead and put the game in the reliable right hand of closer Pete Fairbanks.

But as it turned out, that wasn’t the Rays’ biggest break of the night. That came an inning later.

Jonny DeLuca dashed from first to third base on a Brandon Lowe single and scored on an error by center fielder Jake McCarthy, sending the Rays to a wild, 5-4, walk-off win over the D-backs on Friday night at Tropicana Field.

“Just a really fun game,” Josh Lowe said. “We did a good job of just fighting through at-bats and eventually getting the winning run across.”

It was an unusual way to win, and an unexpected one after Fairbanks snapped his streak of 13 consecutive save opportunities converted by allowing a game-tying homer to Corbin Carroll with two outs and two strikes in the ninth.

But it was a welcome one for the slumping Rays, especially against a red-hot D-backs team that had won six straight games.

“I mean, we'll take anything at this point,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “You don't have to knock the cover off the ball. We'll take it finding a hole.”

They found a few in big moments, leading to their sixth walk-off win and 29th come-from-behind victory of the season. Perhaps more importantly, they snapped a season-high-tying streak of four straight games scoring two runs or fewer and provided temporary relief from a dreadful stretch with runners in scoring position.

Batting with two out and DeLuca on first base, Brandon Lowe slapped a 100.3 mph sinker from right-hander Justin Martinez back up the middle. The ball bounced off the mound, deflected off second baseman Blaze Alexander’s glove and rolled into center field. DeLuca hustled and rounded third base hard, initially picking up a stop sign from third base coach Brady Williams.

“Saw it get through, and I was like, 'Oh, Jonny's gonna get to third. Perfect. We're gonna have a runner on third base for [Christopher Morel], who's been swinging the bat great tonight. So, fantastic. This is all I need,’” Brandon Lowe said.

But the play wasn’t over. McCarthy came in and tried to pick up the ball barehanded, which he called “just a lapse.” He missed it entirely. On a night they committed a season-high-tying three errors, the Rays benefited from the D-backs’ miscue, and Williams immediately sent DeLuca home.

“I knew he runs pretty well, so I figured he was going to round third pretty aggressively,” McCarthy said. “I should have just gloved it there. Can’t happen.”

DeLuca didn’t see the play unfold in center, keeping his eyes on Williams and trusting him to make the right call. He did.

“Once he gave me the go sign, I was just running as hard as you can,” DeLuca said.

“Thank God, of all the people on our team, Jonny was the one running,” Brandon Lowe said, “because I don't know of many of our guys that would have been able to score in that situation. So it was fantastic.”

It didn’t look like the Rays would need those ninth-inning dramatics after Josh Lowe’s big hit in the eighth. It was shaping up to be another frustrating night, a waste of excellent pitching by Ryan Pepiot and their lights-out bullpen, as they scored just one run through the first seven innings on a Dylan Carlson solo shot off D-backs starter Ryne Nelson.

But Yandy Díaz smacked a one-out single to center off Thompson, the former Rays reliever, and Morel reached on a high chopper that didn’t make it to the infield dirt. Up came Josh Lowe, who broke his bat swatting a 2-2 fastball to shallow left field and begged the 70.6 mph blooper to find the turf.

“Just please sit,” Josh Lowe said. “It listened.”

That easily scored Díaz to tie the game, and Morel dashed home to score the go-ahead run when left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. slapped the ball in the air while trying to field it. Lowe, who went on to score on a steal and a single by Carlson, couldn’t hide his excitement on the field or after the game.

“I think it just kind of shows the frustration that we've been feeling as a whole in terms of runners in scoring position,” he said. “Hopefully just a little bloop hit like that will open up the floodgates for us, and we can really get on a run, score a bunch of runs, and not have to worry about being in situations like that.”