Charlie Morton improved to 2-0 with five innings of three-hit baseball, and Austin Meadows, Avisail Garcia and Brandon Lowe all homered as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Chicago White Sox for the second straight afternoon, taking the middle game of this three-game series 10-5 Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
For Tampa Bay, they were able to jump out to a first-inning lead for the fifth consecutive game, as Austin Meadows singled off Ervin Santana to start the game, stole second, moved to third on a flyout by Tommy Pham, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Lowe.
Garcia made it 2-0 an inning later, taking a pitch from Santana (0-1) and depositing it over the wall in center for his first home run as a member of the Rays.
Meadows made it 4-0 later in the inning with a two-run blast off Santana, his third of the season.
Lowe made it 5-0 an inning later with a solo home run of his own, his second of the season.
Yoan Moncada got Chicago in the board in the bottom of the third with a two-run blast off Morton, but Tampa Bay immediately got both runs back with a double to Willy Adames and a base hit from Meadows, then extended the lead to 8-2 in the eighth inning as a Caleb Frare wild pitch scored Adames.
Morton left after five innings, and Wilmer Font pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh, but ran out of gas in the eighth, as Moncada singled with one out and Yonder Alonso drew a two-out walk. Kevin Cash turned to Ryne Stanek to try and get the final out of the inning, but the right-hander gave up a RBI single to Tim Anderson, a walk to Wellington Castillo, and a RBI single from Eloy Jimenez to make it 8-4. Cash then brought in Jose Alvarado, who walked Jose Rondon to force in another run to make it 8-5, but struck out Adam Engel to strand the bases loaded.
Kevin Kiermaier's RBI single off Jace Fry gave Tampa Bay some more breathing room, and Austin Meadows set the scoring with a bases loaded walk for his fourth RBI of the afternoon.
Tampa Bay can cap off the sweep of the White Sox with a win in Wednesday's finale.
WEDNESDAY'S MATCHUP
Tampa Bay Rays (9-3) at Chicago White Sox (3-7), 2:10 pm scheduled first pitch, with coverage on WDAE beginning at 1:00 with The Inside Pitch presented by Crown Eurocars
Rays starter: RHP Tyler Glasnow (2-0, 0.82 ERA)
White Sox starter: RHP Reynaldo Lopez (0-1, 10.00 ERA)
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Thursday: OFF
Friday: Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 7:07 pm first pitch
Saturday: Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 4:07 pm first pitch
Sunday: Rays at Toronto Blue Jays, 1:07 pm first pitch