Evan Longoria became the second Rays player in franchise to hit for the cycle, and also set another franchise record in runs scored in a career, helping Chris Archer even the four-game series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Houston Astros with a 6-4 win at Minute Maid Park.
Longoria started the scoring in the first inning off Mike Fiers, following a single by Lucas Duda by blasting his 17th home run of the year to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead. Logan Morrison followed suit as the next batter, as his solo blast to right extended the lead to 3-0 on his 27th of the year.
The Rays third baseman added his third RBI of the evening in the third, as his triple to right scored Duda, who doubled in front of him, for a 4-0 advantage, scoring on an RBI single by Adeiny Hechaverria later in the inning. The run was his 766th of his career, passing Carl Crawford for the most runs scored in franchise history
Houston started to rally against Chris Archer in the fifth, with solo homers by Carlos Beltran and Alex Bregman cutting things to 5-2.
Morrison gave the Rays some extra insurance in the seventh on a base hit that scored Corey Dickerson to make the score 6-2.
The Astros made it 6-3 with a single by Beltran off Archer and 6-4 with an RBI groundout by Bregman of Steve Cishek in the seventh, but Tommy Hunter got Jose Altuve to ground out to end the frame and worked a quiet eighth. Alex Colome then tossed a perfect ninth to earn his league-leading 31st save.
The win improves Tampa Bay's record back to two games over .500 at 55-53 and within a game and a half behind Kansas City for the second Wild Card.
Tampa Bay can take the series lead over the Astros Wednesday, but have quite the daunting task in front of them, as Houston will send former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel (9-0, 1.94 ERA). Right-hander Austin Pruitt (5-2, 6.63 ERA) gets the start for the Rays, with coverage on WDAE starting at 7:00 with The Inside Pitch presented by Sykes Lakeland. First pitch from Minute Maid Park is set for 8:10.