ST. PETERSBURG — In extending their staggering streak to 14 wins in 15 games, the American League-leading Rays have come up with different ways to come out on top.
Saturday’s 5-3 victory over the Phillies was another, as they lost two leads then rallied for the two decisive runs in the eighth inning without hitting a ball out of the infield.
“A lot of things went our way for sure,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
Such as:
Randy Arozaena beating out a ground ball for a leadoff single and getting the (somewhat obvious) replay reversal to be safe, then making the aggressive move to go from first to third when pitcher Sam Coonrod bounced a pitch by catcher J.P. Realmuto.
“It being a tie game I’m always looking to try to take that extra base, so that’s exactly what I did when I saw that open base,” Arozarena said via team interpreter Manny Navarro. “I just kept on going and find a way to make something happen for this team.”
![Randy Arozarena runs toward first base while Phillies first baseman Alec Bohm waits for the ball in the eighth inning.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"%20viewBox="0%200%205184%203456"/%3E "Randy Arozarena runs toward first base while Phillies first baseman Alec Bohm waits for the ball in the eighth inning.")
And Austin Meadows, in a left-on-left battle with hard-throwing ex-Ray Jose Alvarado, chopping an 0-2 92-mph cutter into the turf that Alvarado couldn’t make a clean play on to get Arozarena home with the go-ahead run.
“Jose is really good. He’s got really good stuff, really good movement on his fastball,” Meadows said. “For me, it was just trying to put the ball in play. Just touch it really. Literally touch it. I was able to do that and get the run.”
And Mike Brosseau, pinch-hitting with two outs and the bases loaded after Ji-Man Choi was hit by a pitch, making Alvarado look familiar to Rays fans, drawing a full-count walk to plate an insurance run.
“We’ll take it,” Cash said. “The key was getting Randy on base right there and allowing for some things to go our way. Meadows hung in there. Just put it in play. When you chop it you’ve got a chance with a guy at third. Then Ji-Man hit by pitch, and Bross had a tremendous at-bat.”
Before Meadows had the little hit — the bouncer between the mound and first with an exit velocity of 59 mph — he had a big one, a 401-foot, 104-mph homer in the first inning, his team-high tying 11th, to put the Rays up 2-0.
But Ryan Yarbrough pitched well through four innings, lost the lead — and the chance to end what is now a 24-start winless streak — in the fifth when a walk, a bunt single and a two-run double by No. 9 hitter Ronald Torreyes ended his day.
The Rays went up 3-2 in the sixth when Yandy Diaz and Meadows walks and Choi delivered an RBI single. But they couldn’t hold it as Matt Joyce — the ex-Ray and Tampa native — ended an 0-for-28 stretch with a homer off lefty Jeffrey Springs.
Even as the Rays were striking out 16 times and the Phillies 15 for a combined 31 — four off the major-league nine-inning record — they remained confident that somehow, someway, they were going to find a way to win, improving to 33-20.
“I think we know we can get hot at any time,” Meadows said. “Whether we’re down or up, we know that it’s going to be a battle ‘til the end. Having that experience in the past of being able to come back in games or hang right there with a team and know that it’s going to take one guy to deliver, whether it’s early in the game or late, we continue to battle. And we were able to do that today.”
The fun they’re having is obvious.
“They’re playing good,” Cash said. “They’ve got just a tremendous mindset going right now. The amount of wins that we’ve kind of racked up here of late certainly helps that. But they are feeding off each other. And in the big moments, the dugout just really erupts.”
• • •
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