Lowe's blast lifts Rays after chasing Ohtani

For six innings Wednesday night, the Rays walked their way into scoring opportunities but could not turn them into runs. They found their way on base against Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani, but every attempted rally fizzled without the big hit they needed.

Brandon Lowe gave it to them in the seventh, launching a three-run homer off reliever Junior Guerra and sending the Rays to a 3-1 win at Angel Stadium. Lowe’s fifth home run of the season backed up a solid performance by Tampa Bay’s pitching staff and a tremendous defensive effort as the Rays won their fourth straight game.

“We have a fun team, man,” reliever Ryan Thompson said. “It’s fun, because we're kind of showing that spark that we had all last year, where it was just a collective unit of, you know, we could be behind and it just felt like we were ahead the whole time.”

Yet the Rays were trailing, 1-0, after Ryan Yarbrough walked in a run in the third inning. They had their chances, as Ohtani allowed at least one baserunner in every inning but the fifth and finished with six walks on the night. And Tampa Bay seemingly whiffed on its best opportunity in the sixth, when Yoshi Tsutsugo came to the plate with one out and the bases loaded only to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Then Brett Phillips drew a four-pitch walk to begin the Rays’ seventh-inning rally, and Willy Adames reached on a single to left field to bring up Lowe. Bumped into the leadoff spot for the first time this season, Lowe crushed a 2-1 sinker from Guerra 416 feet out to center field. Just like that, the Rays handed the back end of their bullpen a two-run lead.

“Good for Brandon,” manager Kevin Cash said. “He's been scuffling a little bit, wearing it on his sleeve. That was a big, big hit. I was excited to see him smiling afterwards.”

Lowe spent much of the first month of the season looking for something to smile about. The Rays’ most valuable player last season, Lowe is still hitting just .193 with a .663 OPS even though he’s tied for second on the team with five homers and ranks fourth with 14 RBIs. So Lowe couldn’t hide what it meant to come through in a critical moment on Wednesday.

“No secret I've been struggling a little bit,” Lowe said, “so it felt really good to hit the ball that solid and kind of see it fly out of the yard, especially in a big situation to get our team the lead and give us a little breathing room for our pitchers on the mound.”

The Rays pieced together their pitching as they clinched their first series victory since taking two of three in Kansas City from April 19-21. Andrew Kittredge worked two scoreless innings as the opener. Yarbrough didn’t allow another run after the third then gave way to Thompson with a runner on first and nobody out in the seventh.

After getting a ground ball from David Fletcher and striking out Taylor Ward, Thompson found himself facing Mike Trout -- “in my opinion, hands down the best player in the game right now,” Thompson said, “and he will be for a long time.”

Looking to induce weak contact but expecting Trout to hunt a two-seam fastball, Thompson started the at-bat with a pair of sliders over the plate that the three-time MVP took for called strikes. Trout fouled off a 93.4 mph fastball, Thompson’s hardest pitch of the season at that point, and Trout took two more pitches to even the count. Finally, Trout went down swinging at a 92.2 mph fastball just off the plate.

Then came an even tougher challenge for Thompson: coming back out for a second inning. The Angels’ first two hitters reached safely before Thompson forced Phil Gosselin to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs took over from there, recording the final four outs to secure his second big league save.

“The at-bat with Trout was huge,” Cash said. “And then to be able to get the double-play ball was just as big.”

So, too, was the Rays’ infield defense. Adames helped Kittredge get out of the second with a diving stop on a Kurt Suzuki ground ball. With two on and one out in the fourth, third baseman Joey Wendle snagged Fletcher’s line drive and quickly threw back to Lowe at second for the final out of the inning. Wendle and Lowe turned another double play in the sixth, keeping the Angels off the board and keeping the Rays close enough for Lowe to put them ahead in the seventh.

“That's us. We're built to play really, really good defense behind our pitchers,” Cash said. “Nights like tonight where it's tough to get runs, that defense really shows up. I think as much as anything, our defense won the ballgame for us. Kept us right there when we were down, 1-0, and just bought the offense some time to come up with a big hit from Brandon.”