Tampa Bay’s Isaac Paredes slashed a two-run, walk-off single as the Rays rallied past the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 on Saturday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.
In the ninth with the visitors up 5-4, closer David Bednar (3-2) recorded the first two outs before walking Ji-Man Choi and Vidal Brujan. Then pinch hitter Jonathan Aranda singled off Bednar’s glove to fill the bases with two outs.
Down 0-2 in the count, Paredes, who went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs, lined a ball to right field that sent Choi and Brujan across the plate.
Paredes has five home runs in his past three games, which includes a three-homer game on Tuesday.
Randy Arozarena turned in a 4-for-5 outing with two doubles, a run and an RBI. Taylor Walls was 2-for-4 with a run, and Brujan had a hit, run and two RBIs.
The Rays improved to 9-1 this season in interleague play.
Ralph Garza Jr. (1-2) tossed two scoreless innings with a strikeout and a walk to get the win.
Bligh Madris was 3-for-4 with a double, Jack Suwinski slugged a three-run homer and Diego Castillo added a solo shot for the Pirates, who were outhit 14-8 by the Rays.
In the home half of the first inning, Brujan, who scored the game-winning run in the 10th inning in the series opener on Friday, put the Rays up 2-0 when he hit starter JT Brubaker’s two-out slider off the end of his bat. Center fielder Bryan Reynolds paused on the big swing, and the ball landed in shallow center to plate Walls and Arozarena.
Just as he did in Friday’s 4-3 loss, Castillo popped a solo shot, his seventh, and Reynolds ripped a single to center to score Michael Perez in the third frame to even the contest.
Brubaker settled in after the rough first inning, but Arozarena’s third hit — a double to center — brought home Josh Lowe in the fifth inning to allow the Rays to reclaim the lead. However, Brubaker then picked off Arozarena at second to get out of trouble in the three-hit inning.
With reliever Jalen Beeks in for starter Corey Kluber in the sixth, Suwinski unloaded a Statcast-measured 443-foot rocket off the back wall behind right field in the domed stadium.
The three-run shot carried the visitors to a 5-3 lead.
After Suwinski’s monstrous blow, Paredes’ 10th homer in the eighth trimmed the Pirates’ advantage to one.
–Field Level Media
