Sunday turned out to be a good day for Nick Gordon, whose RBI single in the seventh erased a 5-4 Tampa Bay lead, and ninth inning base hit made sure the Rays wouldn’t finish off a three-game sweep of the Minnesota Twins, as they dropped a 6-5 decision at Tropicana Field.
The Rays needed to rally after the Twins took an early 4-0 lead. In the second, Gordon’s two-out double started a stretch of five consecutive Minnesota batters to reach safely. Jake Cave followed with an RBI single, and after a base hit by Ben Rortvedt and a walk to Willians Astudillo loaded the bases, Luis Arraez’s two-run single made it 3-0.
The Twins added a fourth run against Patino in the third on a base hit by Cave, and chased Patino after loading the bases with two outs in the inning, though J.P. Feyereisen escaped the jam by getting Astudillo to ground into a fielder’s choice.
The Rays cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the third, with Kevin Kiermaier singling off Twins starter Griffin Jax to start the inning, and two batters later, Brandon Lowe blasted a two-run homer to right, his 33rd of the season.
Tampa Bay nearly pulled ahead in the bottom of the fourth, when Kevin Kiermaier’s bid for a three-run homer was raken away at the top of the wall by Buxton, but Nelson Cruz cut the deficit back to a single run in the fifth when his RBI single scored Lowe, who singled two batters earlier. Rocco Baldelli then went to Caleb Thielbar for the left-on-left matchup against Austin Meadows, and the Rays left fielder responded with a two-run blast to right, his 23rd of the season, giving Tampa Bay the lead.
Adam Conley and JT Chargois got the Rays through the sixth with the lead, but Pete Fairbanks allowed a single to Buxton and a walk to Jorge Polanco to lead off the seventh, and after a pair of flyouts, Gordon’s line drive just got over Wander Franco’s glove and in to center field to even the game up at 5-5.
David Robertson worked a scoreless eighth, but the same part of the lineup came around again in the ninth, with Donaldson lacing a one-out double to left, moving to third on a wild pitch, and after Kepler was intentionally walked, Gordon’s base hit broke the tie.
Alex Colome ground his way through the ninth inning, issuing a two-out walk to Lowe, then seeing pinch-runner manuel Margot steal second and go to third on an infield single by Franco, but he got Cruz to fly to center to end the game and earn his 11th save.
Tampa Bay does not lose any ground in the American League East race, as Baltimore beat th Yankees for the second straight day, while Boston lost at home to Cleveland.
The Rays head to Fenway Park to begin their penultimate road trip of the year Monday afternoon, beginning a three-game series with Red Sox. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10.
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.
