Sept. 13 — Cole Sulser and four other relievers combined to give up one hit in seven scoreless innings, and José Caballero had an RBI single. The visiting Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 on Thursday.
Brandon Lowe hit a home run in the first inning and Johnny DeLuca hit a game-breaking single in the fourth inning to help Tampa Bay (72-75) comeback from a three-inning loss at Philadelphia. Right-hander Ryan Pepiatt started for the Rays but was exited after just two innings, allowing two runs, four walks and four hits.
Sulser (1-0) had four strikeouts and a walk during three hitless innings. Left-hander Mason Montgomery allowed no hits in two innings, left-hander Garrett Cleavinger pitched a hitless inning and right-hander Manuel Rodriguez allowed a hit in the eighth inning, retiring left-handed pitcher Richard Lovelady (second save) in the second inning.
Gavin Williams (3-9) allowed three runs and seven hits, walked two and struck out five in 5 1/3 innings for the Guardians (84-62), who were recently beaten three times by the Chicago White Sox.
Two at-bats later, Lowe lofted a pass to Williams over the right field wall to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. However, Tampa Bay’s lead didn’t last long until the end of the opening period.
After Pepiatt struck out Steven Cowan on Josh Naylor’s slasher, Ryan Thomas delivered an RBI double to the left field corner.
In the second half, Pepiatt gave up two outs to Brian Rocchio and Cowan, then Andres Jimenez had an RBI single for the Guardians, putting the team ahead 2-1 in the second half. Single to right field.
However, Tampa Bay regained the lead with two outs in the fourth quarter. Josh Lowe walked and Caballero moved to third on a double that sailed over the left field wall and flew to center on Jonathan Aranda’s sacrifice fly to score in time to tie the game. Deluca then hit an RBI single to center field, giving the Rays a 3–2 lead.
Tampa Bay added a run in the eighth inning when Cleveland’s Pedro Avila walked Yandy Diaz, then Josh Lowe singled and Caballero drove in a run. Logan Driscoll’s sacrifice fly in the ninth completed the scoring for Tampa Bay.
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