Vidal Brujan doubled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning as the Tampa Bay Rays salvaged the finale of their three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels with a 4-2 victory on Wednesday in Anaheim, Calif.
The Rays scored two runs in the top of the 10th off Aaron Loup (0-2). Brujan’s leadoff double scored automatic runner Kevin Kiermaier from second base. Brujan then stole third base and came home on Harold Ramirez’s single to center.
Los Angeles trailed 2-0 with one out in the eighth before tying the game on pinch hitter Taylor Ward’s two-run homer to left field off Andrew Kittredge.
J.P. Feyereisen (3-0) pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the win. The Angels had runners on the corners with two outs in the 10th before Brooks Raley struck out Brandon Marsh for his third save.
Kiermaier homered for Tampa Bay, which snapped its three-game losing streak and bounced back after being no-hit by the Angels’ Reid Detmers in a 12-0 loss on Tuesday.
Before the late-inning drama, the game was highlighted by a pitchers’ duel between the Rays’ Shane McClanahan and the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani.
McClanahan matched a career high by striking out 11 over seven scoreless innings. He allowed three hits with one walk while throwing 100 pitches.
Ohtani yielded one run on two hits over six frames. He walked two and struck out five on 92 pitches.
After being outscored 23-3 in the first two games of the series, Tampa Bay took an early lead on Kiermaier’s two-out solo homer in the second inning.
Neither team was able to push another run across until the eighth, when the Rays’ Taylor Walls hit a leadoff single, stole second base and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt before scoring on Yandy Diaz’s groundout.
Ward then tied the game in the bottom of the eighth with the Angels’ first pinch-hit homer since Jared Walsh accomplished the feat on Sept. 9, 2019. The blast was Ward’s seventh of the season.
Ohtani also singled and recorded his fifth stolen base for the Angels, who saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.
–Field Level Media
