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Rays don’t make it easy, but they make it work in 7-6 win over Jays

Down 6-0 in fourth, Rays roar back to tie it then battle into the 10th inning before winning on a walkoff wild pitch.
 
Tampa Bay Rays Austin Meadows (17) celebrates in the dugout after hitting a home run to right also scoring catcher Travis d'Arnaud (37) during the fourth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Tropicana Field Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019 in St. Petersburg. DIRK SHADD   |   Times
Tampa Bay Rays Austin Meadows (17) celebrates in the dugout after hitting a home run to right also scoring catcher Travis d'Arnaud (37) during the fourth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Tropicana Field Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019 in St. Petersburg. DIRK SHADD | Times
Published Aug. 7, 2019|Updated Aug. 7, 2019

ST. PETERSBURG — The Rays seemed to already do the hard part in the fourth inning Tuesday, their offense snapping back to life after 12 scoreless frames over two days with a six-run barrage, on three two-run homers, to erase a hefty Blue Jays lead.

But there was still the matter of winning the game, which they did with some degree of difficulty, and considerable drama, 7-6 in 10 innings.

Kevin Kiermaier led off the 10th with a base hit to right that he all-out hustled into a double, and a Matt Duffy walk and a Willy Adames bunt the Jays couldn’t make a play on later, they had the bases loaded.

Pinch-hitter Tommy Pham took a called third strike from lefty Buddy Boshers, then Travis d’Arnaud went down swinging. With Austin Meadows, their last chance, in a 2-2 count, they won it on a wild pitch, with Kiermaier racing home.

"We’ll take a win any way we can,'' Kiermaier said. "But the story of this game is down 6-0, this team has no quit in us. It’s crazy that we even came back, especially all in one inning and then we did enough in the 10th ... to win the game. This team, this is why it’s so much fun to be a part of. And these guys, we never stop until that last out is made. I love every second of it.''

It was the Rays’ third walkoff win of the season, and just their second win in nine extra-inning games at home. It was the second time in franchise history the Rays won on a walk off wild pitch, also April 30, 2011, by Fernando Rodney, then of the Angels.

"I just kept saying, “Who’s going to be the hero?” And you can point the finger at a lot of guys in here,'' Kiermaier said. "You can sit here and pinpoint so many things throughout the whole game. Such a great team effort.''

The 10th came after a nerve wracking ninth before a Tropicana Field gathering of 9,434.

First, the Rays had to escape a serious threat as the Jays had men on third and second with one out. Emilio Pagan came through, striking out sizzling rookie Bo Bichette, the Lakewood High product looking to make his homecoming even more happy, and then Cavan Biggio on elevated 96 mph fastballs.

"That was really impressive,'' manager Kevin Cash said. "And really with no margin of error.''

Then they failed in a prime chance to win in regulation.

Meadows reached second with one out on an infield single and accompanying errant throw by Vlad Guerrero Jr. But Mike Brosseau flied out and after lefty Eric Sogard was intentionally walk, Avisail Garcia battled through a nine-pitch at-bat against Jason Adam, including four straight two-strike fouls, before striking out.

"Interesting ninth, to say the least,'' Cash said. "But glad we got a win.''

With the win, the Rays improved to 66-49 and continued their hold on the second AL wild-card spot, staying one-half game ahead of Oakland, and moving to within 1 ½ games of top-card holding Cleveland.

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They also avoided the difficult reality in what is a supposedly soft stretch of 21 game against teams with losing records that they would have been playing Wednesday to avoid a sweep by the rebuilding Jays.

"I said in the little post-game celebration, that’s what the best teams in baseball do, they make you play all 27 outs,'' Kiermaier said. "And that’s what we’ve been doing. The comebacks in Toronto a couple weeks ago and then Boston, it’s a lot of fun to be a part of.

"That’s the message you want to spread across throughout the whole clubhouse. Let these young guys know this is what it’s all about, no matter what you do, what your stat line is, winning is all that’s important. I’m telling you we’re going to go on a tear here to end out the season I can feel it. This is so much fun to be a part of.''

What started as a dazzling open by Andrew Kittredge with five consecutive strikeouts — two short of the AL record to start a game, and all swinging — took a bad turn as the Rays suddenly were down 3-0 in the second. He allowed a two-out single to Randal Grichuk, went from ahead 0-2 to walking Teoscar Hernandez, then gave up a three-run homer to Brandon Drury.

A couple bad pitches by Ryan Yarbrough and sloppy infield defense the deficit grew to 6-0 in the fourth.

But then the Rays struck back, hitting three two-run homers in their half of the inning.

"When you’re down 6-0 you have to have a lot of things go your way,'' Cash said. "Obviously they did tonight.''

Avisail Garcia had the first one, following Eric Sogard’s leadoff single, a 382-foot shot to left, his 15th of the season

Adames was next, following Duffy’s one-out single, a 375-foot shot to left, the 15th of his season also, and his fifth in his last nine games.

And then Meadows, following d’Arnaud’s two-out single, a massive 447 foot blast, with an exit velocity of 109.8 mph per Statcast, to right, his team-leading 19th.

“That inning was huge for us, starting off with Avisail and then Willy,'' Meadows said. "It was big to be able to keep it going and getting away with the win tonight.”

Yarbrough ended up working 4 2/3 innings in what Cash called an outstanding inning, notably back-to-back 1-2-3 eight-pitch innings after the Rays had tied it. He left with two on in the seventh, Chaz Roe got the Rays out of that and then Nick Anderson, Pagan and Diego Castillo all posted zeroes.

"We’re a really confident group,'' Pagan said, "Even those games that didn’t go our way, I would say we were calm and collected and felt like we had everything we needed to be able to win those games. Now we’re in a roll where those outcomes are going our way.”

Contact Marc Topkin at mtopkin@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Rays.