Things looked good through 7 innings in St.Louis. 3 homeruns from the offense and 7 solid innings from Blake Snell had the Rays in the driver’s seat with a 4-2 lead heading to the 8th. That’s where things kind of fell apart. Tommy Hunter walked the leadoff man and it came back to bite him. Yadier Molina cut the lead to 1 with a single and then scored the tying run when Brad Boxberger couldn’t get the out to bail out Hunter. The bleeding wouldn’t stop in the 9th. Tommy Pham completed the comeback with a 2-run homerun to walk off with the 6-4 victory.
The Rays got off to a great start in the top of the 1st as Lucas Duda hit a 423 foot blast to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead before Snell even stepped foot on the hill. Snell got a bit more run support in the 4th inning when Corey Dickerson saved Rays fans a bunch of money on tires with a solo shot to make it 3-0.
Things got a little sticky for Blake in the 6th. A triple interrupted Snell’s shutout, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Dickerson lost a Yadier Molina pop-up in the lights with 2-outs that scored DeJong from 3rd and made it a 1-run game.
The defense let Blake down, but the bats propped him up to start the 7th. Adeiny Hechavarria hit his 3rd homerun as a member of the Rays to get one of those runs back. Snell came back in the bottom half of the inning and shut down St. Louis to end his night. Snell went 7 innings allowing just the 2 runs and 4 hits.
Tommy Hunter came in to replace Snell in the 8th. Hunter walked the leadoff man and it came back to bite him when Molina hit a 2-out RBI single to cut the lead to 4-3. Hunter would allow the bases to get loaded and then would be replaced by Brad Boxberger. Boxberger couldn’t get the big out. A Kolten Wong single scored Molina, but the Rays caught a break when Jedd Gyorko pulled a hamstring rounding 3rd to prevent the go-ahead run from scoring.
That break wouldn’t help the Rays win the game. Tommy Pham hit a walk-off homerun off of Boxberger to complete the comeback.
The Rays will closeout player’s weekend with the series finale Sunday in St.Louis. Chris Archer (9-7, 3.76 ERA)will take to the mound for Tampa Bay to face Lance Lynn (10-6, 3.17 ERA) for the Cardinals. 1st pitch is scheduled for 2:15 with coverage beginning at high noon with Steve Carney and the Inside Pitch right here on WDAE.