Pinch hitter Harold Ramirez grounded a walk-off single in the 10th inning Friday night to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Placed on second base in the bottom of the 10th, Vidal Brujan stole third base with one out. Ramirez came off the bench to bat for Brett Phillips and drove a 1-0 pitch from Yerry De Los Santos (0-1) through the Pirates’ drawn-in infield for his third career walk-off RBI.
In the top of the inning, Pittsburgh wasted a promising first-and-third, no-out situation against Jason Adam (1-2), who sandwiched two strikeouts around a foulout to keep it 3-3.
In their first games for Tampa Bay, Luke Raley and Jonathan Aranda each had an RBI single as the club produced just seven hits — all singles.
Michael Chavis (2-for-5), Diego Castillo and Hoy Park (2-for-4) notched homers. Oneil Cruz was 2-for-4 for Pittsburgh.
Tampa Bay’s Jeffrey Springs (six innings) and Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller (five innings) both received no-decisions after each allowed three runs in their starts.
The left-handed Springs surrendered seven hits and three solo homers, while Keller spotted the Rays a big early lead in a three-run second frame.
The Rays moved to 7-3 in extra innings, while the Pirates dropped to 2-3.
In the two teams’ first matchup in Florida since 2014, the Rays’ two newcomers gave them an early 2-0 lead.
After Josh Lowe singled and stole second base, Raley — who debuted last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers — grounded a base hit in his first Tampa Bay plate appearance to score Lowe.
Aranda slashed Keller’s 0-2 curveball into right field in his first major league at-bat to score Raley, who had advanced to second on a walk to Taylor Walls.
Walls trotted home when Keller flinched slightly from the stretch, committing a balk to send the third run across the plate.
In the fourth, Pittsburgh trimmed the lead to one by flexing its muscle on a pair of solo home runs off Springs changeups. Chavis lobbed a high homer to left, his eighth, on a 2-1 pitch, then two batters later Castillo belted his at-bat’s ninth offering a Statcast-estimated 411 feet for his sixth deep shot.
Park ripped a high fastball 411 feet to right-center for his second homer, tying the game with the leadoff shot in the fifth.
–Field Level Media