Brandon Lowe hit his first home run of 2025, and Taj Bradley‘s six innings of work helped lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 6-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies in Sunday’s three-game series finale.
Lowe got the Rays out to the lead in the first inning, following a leadoff double by Yandy Diaz with a blast off Rockies starter Ryan Feltner into the right-center field seats to take a 2-0 advantage.
“Brandon right now looks very comfortable in the batter’s box, manager Kevin Cash said after the game. “Wwe know that if he gets his pitch, he can generate a lot of power and hopefully hit a lot more of those.”
Bradley allowed just one hit through the first four innings, but Colorado would tally single runs in both the fifth and sixth innings on singles by Nick Martini and Hunter Goodman in order to get the game tied up.
But the Rays would take the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth. Jonathan Aranda started the frame by getting hit by a Luis Peralta pitch with one out. Taylor Walls followed with a single, and Junior Caminero, pinch-hitting for Kameron Misner, delivered an infield single allowing Aranda to score. Jose Caballero‘s safety squeeze bunt coupled with a Jacob Stallings error brought in both Walls and Caminero, and Caballero eventually stole third and scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Ben Rortvedt.
Mickey Moniak‘s two-run homer in the seventh off reliever Kevin Kelly brought Colorado back to within two runs, but the Rockies would get no closer, as Edwin Uceta worked a perfect eighth and Pete Fairbanks a scoreless ninth for his first save of 2025.
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.
