Rays get by on luck, a little Mejía magic

ST. PETERSBURG -- Corey Kluber started Tuesday night’s game well for the Rays, facing the minimum 12 batters through four innings. Even when he blinked first in a duel with fellow veteran Chris Sale, giving up two runs in six innings, it was on a sacrifice bunt and a fly ball that should have been caught.

Francisco Mejía finished the game even better. The switch-hitting catcher came off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit RBI single, score the go-ahead run on a crazy play, pull off a huge pickoff and catch the final out of the Rays’ 3-2 win over the Red Sox at Tropicana Field.

“He only played three innings,” Kluber said, “and made quite an impact on the game.”

Here are three moments that keyed the Rays’ 14th come-from-behind win of the season, with Mejía in the middle of all of them.

“I think everything I was able to do helped us win the game,” he said through interpreter Manny Navarro, “and I was prepared for it.”

The pinch-hit RBI single
The Rays couldn’t get anything going against Sale, who worked five scoreless innings in his season debut, and Kluber was on the wrong end of a couple bad breaks when the Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the fifth. But their luck changed in the sixth.

Harold Ramírez reached on an infield single to begin the inning, and Isaac Paredes worked a one-out walk before Randy Arozarena struck out. With Ji-Man Choi coming to the plate, the Red Sox summoned lefty Matt Strahm from their bullpen.

Choi is hitting .394 against left-handers this season, and he’s been one of the Rays’ better hitters overall and their best with runners in scoring position. But manager Kevin Cash pinch-hit for Choi with the switch-hitting catcher Mejía, who could face Strahm right-handed.

The move made sense, as Mejía entered the night 15-for-44 against southpaws this season. And it worked, as he slapped a 1-1 slider from Strahm back up the middle for the fifth RBI pinch-hit of his career.

Then things got a little weird.

The two-run, two-error comebacker
With the Rays’ deficit cut in half, Taylor Walls followed Mejía to the plate. He hit a 1-1 slider directly back at Strahm. The lefty appeared to throw both his hands behind his body to protect himself, but the 98 mph comebacker struck his left wrist and bounced away.

“Once I saw him get hit and it ricocheted off the pitcher,” Mejía said through Navarro, “I knew that anything can happen.”

Strahm scrambled to get the ball, but with a painfully bruised left wrist that would force him to leave the game, his throw to first was way off target. Walls reached on an infield single, and third-base coach Rodney Linares waved Paredes home to score the tying run.

“We know that crazy things can happen,” Paredes said through Navarro. “You always know that against a team like this, you've got to take advantage of a situation.”

First baseman Franchy Cordero tracked down Strahm's wide throw and then rushed an errant throw to the plate, and the ball bounced off catcher Christian Vázquez toward the Red Sox's dugout. Vázquez said he was trying to call time in a “scary moment” for Strahm, thinking Cordero would hold on to the ball. When that went awry, Mejía scampered home to score the go-ahead run.

In the end, the Red Sox were charged with two throwing errors -- and what turned out to be the winning run scored from first base on a ball hit back to the pitcher.

“Fortunately enough for us, he threw it away. Isaac and Mejía were heads-up and were able to score on that play,” Walls said. “That was a big play for us.”

But that wasn’t the last of the night’s drama.

The high-leverage pickoff
Lefty reliever Jalen Beeks immediately put himself in a tough spot in the seventh, allowing a leadoff double to Alex Verdugo and a single to Jeter Downs. With Cordero preparing to bunt home the tying run like he did to drive in the game’s first run, Verdugo ventured too far off third base.

Paredes recognized the opportunity. So did Mejía, who took over behind the plate while Christian Bethancourt moved to first base. So did Tampa Bay’s dugout, which signaled the pickoff play.

After catching a fastball from Beeks, the catcher popped up and fired a throw down the line to Paredes. The third baseman put down the tag, killing Boston’s momentum and turning the tide of the inning. Mejía said he’d been practicing that play with Rays coach Paul Hoover.

“There have been times where you might have a little panic when you throw to third,” Mejía said. “But on that play, I was able to make the play, and we were prepared for it.”

With the jam defused, Beeks struck out Cordero and eventually escaped the inning. The lefty worked a perfect eighth, and Brooks Raley picked up his fifth save after a scoreless ninth.

“It was definitely a tight game, I think, from the beginning on,” Mejía said. “Whenever they would go ahead or make a play, then we'd come back and do the same thing. It was definitely an interesting game.”