Zach Eflin earned his sixth win with seven strong innings, and Yandy Diaz returned from missing four games with three hits, including his 11th home run of the season, as the Tampa Bay Rays earned a series win over the Milwaukee Brewers with a 8-4 win in Saturday’s middle game of their three-game series.
Diaz would ground out in his first at-bat in the bottom of the first against Brewers starter Eric Lauer, but Harold Ramirez would give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead later in the frame with his seventh home run of the season, taking Lauer to the opposite field.
The Rays would extend the lead an inning later thanks to a walk to Taylor Walls and a base hit from Manuel Margot, and after Jose Siri struck out, Diaz would blast a Lauer pitch over the fence in straightaway center field for a three-run homer and a 4-0 advantage.
Eflin would allow a solo homer to Owen Miller in the third, and a two-run blast to Brian Anderson an inning later, but Christian Bethancourt gave Tampa Bay some breathing room leading off the bottom of the fifth with a solo homer to center, his seventh of the year, and Margot’s RBI single later in the inning re-established a three-run lead.
The final two runs of the afternoon would come in the seventh after Jake Cousins loaded the bases before issuing free passes to both Isaac Paredes and Walls to force in runs.
Milwaukee would get one more run off reliever Ryan Thompson in the eighth which came after miscommunication in the field allowed a Christian Yelich infield pop up to fall and score Brice Turing.
Tampa Bay can finish off a three-game sweep of the Brewers Sunday afternoon with a victory in the series finale. Jalen Beeks (1-2, 4.70 ERA) is scheduled to open against Freddy Peralta (4-3, 4.11 ERA). FIrst pitch is scheduled for 1:40.
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.
