Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe and Randy Arozarena each delivered RBI singles in the eighth inning that rallied the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Rays were held scoreless through six innings by Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas but responded in the late innings to take the interleague series opener.
Isaac Paredes homered for Tampa Bay in the seventh inning, tying the score at 1.
Willson Contreras capped an 11-pitch at-bat in the ninth inning with a one-out home run for St. Louis, but Pete Fairbanks nonetheless collected his 15th save.
Jason Adam (3-2) worked a scoreless eighth inning for the win.
Josh Lowe started the Rays’ eighth-inning rally with a leadoff triple off Mikolas, who was then replaced by Andre Pallante.
With one out and the Cardinals’ infield playing in, Diaz bounced an RBI single to center. Wander Franco then singled, putting runners on first and second, and Brandon Lowe delivered his run-scoring single. Arozarena followed with a single to score Franco and give the Rays a three-run cushion.
Before the Rays’ offense heated up late, the two starters were in control.
Rays right-hander Zach Eflin allowed just one run on four hits in seven innings. The 29-year-old struck out eight and didn’t allow a walk. Of his 99 pitches, 71 were strikes.
In seven-plus innings, Mikolas (6-8) was charged with two runs on eight hits with five strikeouts in a tough-luck loss.
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead on Nolan Arenado’s home run to lead off the second inning. It was the slugger’s 24th of the season.
In the third, Lars Nootbaar tripled with two outs, but Eflin retired Paul Goldschmidt on a groundout to third to keep the Cardinals at one run.
Arenado’s home run held until the seventh inning, when the Rays tied it on Paredes’ one-out home run, his 22nd of the year.
St. Louis made more noise in the eighth, with Tommy Edman leading off the inning with a walk off Adam. But Edman was thrown out trying to steal second, meaning Nootbaar’s subsequent walk simply put another runner on first. An out later, Nolan Gorman drove the ball to the warning track in center field, but Jose Siri made a leaping catch near the wall.
–Field Level Media
