Saturday, September 21. Game 155: Another 11th inning miracle.

Rays 5, Red Sox 4  11 innings

Record:  92-63

Attendance:  18,179.  Tropicana Field.

After winning two one-run games in the eleventh inning, one against the Dodgers and one against the Red Sox, one might have concluded that another such would be impossible.  But one would have been very wrong!

Travis d'Arnaud and Joey Wendle singled home runs in the third, but d'Arnaud was caught at the plate by Mookie Betts.  The Red Sox got one back on a home run from Xander Bogaerts in the top of the fourth.  Willy Adames hit the longest homer of his career, estimated at 462 feet, which extended the Rays lead to 3-1.  The Red Sox tied the game in the eighth on a two-run homer by Rafael Devers--and the teams drifted into extra innings.  The Rays faithful figured they had the Red Sox right where they wanted them when the teams started the eleventh inning.

But the script seemed to have a new ending.  Mitch Moreland, who hit two homers the night before, lofted another one in the top of the eleventh.  Red Sox up 4-3.  Unfazed, the Rays got a double from d'Arnaud in the bottom of the eleventh, which brought up Nate Lowe, already 0 for 4 in the game and in a 6 for 37 slump during which time he had struck out 13 times, as reported in the Tampa Bay Times.

Lowe managed to get enough on a Josh Smith pitch (the eleventh pitcher of the night for Boston) and sliced the ball down the left field line for an opposite field, walk-off home run.  It was just another routine miracle for these Rays, these 2019 cardiac kids.

Tyler Glasnow had started the game about four hours earlier and done beautifully over the three innings he pitched:  2 hits, no runs or walks, and seven strikeouts.  Almost as significant as Tyler's performance was the return to action of Yonny Chirinos, who had been on the IL since early August.  He also did nicely in his one inning even though he gave up a homer to Xander Bogaerts.  He seems ready to take his place in the bullpen over the next, and last, seven games of the season.

In all, Kevin Cash used nine pitchers, with Nick Anderson giving up the homer to Rafael Devers that tied the game in the eighth, and Diego Castillo giving up the eleventh-inning homer from Mitch Moreland.  Castillo was the beneficiary of Lowe's homer and came away with the victory, making him 5-8.

Sunday afternoon's game begins at 1:10.  Ryan Yarbrough, who has struggled of late, starts against ex-Ray Nathan Eovaldi.