Thursday, June 27. Game 81: Beautiful day, Let's play two.

Rays 5, Twins 2, 18 innings

Record:  46-35

Attendance:  31,317

The Rays seemed to take a stabilizing step forward today when they salvaged the last game of a three-game set against the 50 and 28 Twins, 5-2.  It took them 18 innings to get the job done, nearly six hours.  Until the top of the 18th, all the scoring had been done in the first two innings, and in all, Rays'  pitchers ran a string of 17 consecutive scoreless innings, setting a franchise record by striking out 22.

But playing an extra-inning away game from the bottom of the ninth on, the Twins had a walk-off, last at-bat advantage, which is always nerve-racking for the visiting team.  As all those scoreless innings added up, the pressure on the Rays to get a run and get out with a W was harder and harder to imagine as an outcome.

In the top of the 18th, Brandon Lowe drew a walk and Travis d'Arnaud was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Tommy Pham got an infield hit to load the bases.  Avisail Garcia lined to third for the first out, but Yandy Diaz hit a medium-deep fly ball to left.  Lowe tagged and sprinted home, barely sliding his left hand over the plate before the tag was applied.  Bang, bang..  Then Willy Adames singled in d'Arnaud and Ji-Man Choi drove home Pham. 5-2 Rays.

Then the Rays' Montreal fan base had to bite its nails in the bottom of the 18th that the bullpen would not falter.  It did not. Ryan Yarbrough, the last of nine Rays pitchers, got through the inning and picked up the win.  He's now 7-3.  It's good to think overnight, just before the home series against the Texas Rangers begins tonight, that this big win could be a momentum shifter that propels the team to a big second half.  It seems possible.

Nice job all the way around.