Nelson Cruz received a standing ovation at the start of Friday night’s game at Target Field, and at the end got to high-five his Tampa Bay Rays teammates as their road trip continued with another victory.
Cruz homered and reached base three times in his return to Minneapolis, and Tampa Bay hit three more home runs, including an inside the park homer by Kevin Kiermaier, pulling away from the Minnesota Twins for a 10-4 victory.
Tampa Bay wasted little time in getting in front on Michael Pineda. They made it 1-0 in the top of the first as Brandon Lowe led off the game with a base hit, and after ineda got Wander Franco to fly out and struck out Cruz, Randy Arozarena’s double off the right-center field wall brought Lowe all the way around from first base.
Yandy Diaz doubled the lead in the second, leading off against Pineda with his eighth home run of the year, and Tampa Bay added a third run with two out singles by Mike Zunio and Lowe, with Zunino scoring on a wild pitch. Cruz made it 4-0 when he led off the third by homering to left, his fifth with the Rays and 24th of the season.
Zunino made it 5-0 in the fourth when he homered off reliever Nick Vincent, who took over for Pineda when the right-hander left with tightness in his left side.
Minnesota got runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth on RBI singles by Miguel Sano and Brent Rooker, respectively. But the Rays extended the lead out to 6-2 in the top of the sixth when Kevin Kiermaier’s fly ball to right off reliever John Gant caromed off the brick wall back in toward the infield, and after the center fielder got to a full sprint between first and second base, he was able to circle the bases for this third home run of the year.
Sano would cut the lead back to 6-3 with another RBI single off McClanahan, but after the left-hander left with one out in the inning, Matt Wisler got Ryan Jeffers to ground into a double play to end the inning.
The Rays added four more runs off Gant in the seventh, loading the bases before Joey Wendle drove in a run with a base hit, Kiermaier followed with a two-run single, and Manuel Margot’s sacrifice fly make it a 10-3 ballgame,
Evan Phillips, making his Rays debut, allowed a solo homer to Rooker in the seventh, but finished the game to earn his first MLB save.
The win keeps Tampa Bay five games ahead of Boston for the lead in the American League East.
Tampa Bay can ensure a series win with victory in Saturday evening’s middle game of the series. Michael Wacha (2-3, 5.49 ERA) will start against Kenta Maeda (5-4, 4.69 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
