The Tampa Bay Rays used a five-run fourth inning, including a two-run homer from Tim Beckham and the first big-league hit by Chris Archer to break a 1-1 tie and hold on for a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs Tuesday at Wrigley Field.
The Rays had their first six hitters in the inning reach off Cubs starter Jon Lester, with Trevor Plouffe singling in front of Beckham, whose 11th home run of the year tucked into the basket above the ivy in left-center. Adeiny Hechaverria then singled and moved into scoring position with a walk to Peter Bourjos to bring up Chris Archer, who ended an 0 for 23 streak at the plate to start his big-league career with a single to right that brought in Hechaverria for a 4-1 lead. Steven Souza then doubled in both Bourjos and Archer to give Tampa Bay a five-run lead.
Archer would allow two runs in the bottom of the fifth with an infield hit by Kris Bryant allowing John Jay to score, and a base hit by former Rays Ben Zobrist two batters later that got the Cubs back to 6-3.
Brad Boxberger and Tommy Hunter would each work a scoreless inning of relief after Archer (7-5) worked the first six innings. Alex Colome, however, would make things interesting in the ninth, allowing runs on a single by Anthony Rizzo and a Zobrist fielder's choice to get back to within a run, but he got Jason Heyward to fly to shallow left to earn his 22nd save of the season.
The win not only gets Tampa Bay back to three games over .500 at 44-41, while Joe Maddon's Cubs fall back under .500 at 41-42.
The rays can cap the two-game sweep with a win in Wednesday's finale, with Blake Snell (0-5, 5.36 ERA) taking on John Lackey (5-9, 5.24 ERA). FIrst pitch is scheduled for 2:20 from Wrigley Field, with coverage on WDAE starting at 1:00 with The Inside Pitch presented by Sykes Lakeland.