Rays Make History With 7-Run Rally After 2 Out in 9th, Beat Tigers 7-0 To Win Series
DETROIT, Mich. — The Tampa Bay Rays had burned through 26 outs, and had nothing to show for it. Their bats, once again, were silent.
Two good things, though. Their brethren on the Rays' pitching staff had their backs on Sunday, which was why the score was still tied at 0-0 in the top of the ninth.
And that other thing? Well, the Rays did have one more out to play with.
And play they did.
The Rays went nuts from there, scoring seven runs after two outs to take a 7-0 win and the four-game series over the Tigers. It was the first series win for the Rays since June 15-17 — which was BEFORE the All-Star break.
What they did in the ninth was extremely rare. According to Stats LLC, the Rays were the first team in the modern era (since 1901) to break a scoreless tie in the ninth inning or later by scoring seven or more runs with two outs.
The ninth inning was a walk in the park, literally. Tigers closer Gregory Soto, who walked a batter and got a groundout in the All-Star game, walked three straight Rays batters in the ninth inning.
And it didn't really come as a surprise. The Rays walked 27 times in this four-game series — including a team-record 13 times in Friday night's win — and the series walks total set a record, too. Soto has walked 19 batters in the ninth inning this season, the worst in baseball.
Isaac Paredes, the former Tiger, had a one-out single in the ninth and Francisco Mejia, who's been hot in July, had a two-out double. That's when Soto started to lose control. He walked Jose Siri to load the bases, and then walked Yu Chang to force the first run of the game across the plate. Then he walked Yandy Diaz to make it 2-0.
The bats took it from there. Brandon Lowe beat the shift with a single up the middle, driving in two runs, and then Randy Arozarena laced a double down the right field like, scoring two more. Roman Quinn followed with a single, scoring Arozarena, and the seven runs were in. It's the biggest inning of the year for the Rays. They hadn't scored seven runs in an inning since last August against Boston.
With the win, the Rays are now 58-50 at the two-thirds mark in the season. They remain tied for the second wild-card spot with the Seattle Mariners. They are two games behind Toronto for the No. 4 spot, and two ahead of Baltimore and Cleveland in the wild-card race.
It probably also has to be said, now that the New York Yankees have lost five straight games, that the Rays are now only 11.5 games out in the American League East race. Toronto is 9.5 back, and it's the first time that Yankees haven't had a double-digit lead since early June.
Because of the off day on Monday, the Rays were contemplated having a bullpen day on Sunday anyway, so they did both, starting Drew Rasmussen but limiting his innings. The plan worked perfectly, with six Rays pitchers combining to throw a three-hit shutout — with no walks. The Rays walked only two Tigers the entire series.
Rasmussen pitched the first three innings and retired eight batters in a row. The ninth hitter, Akil Baddoo, reached on an error by Rays second baseman Isaac Paredes, but then he was caught stealing, so Rasmussen faced the minimum, lowering his ERA to 2.96 on the season in his three hitless innings
The parade of relievers worked well. Jalen Beeks pitched a scoreless fourth, allowing just one hit. Brooks Raley pitched the fifth and sixth, and also allowed just one hit. Pete Fairbanks had a one-hit seventh inning as well.
Colin Poche pitched a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts, and picked up the win after the rally in the ninth. He's now 4-1 on the season. Shawn Armstrong pitched a perfect ninth that also included two strikeouts.
The Rays are off on Monday, and then will play two games in Milwaukee on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon. They are also off on Thursday before playing a quick — and very important — three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Tropicana Field.
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.