Another walk-off! Arozarena reclaims clutch mantle

ST. PETERSBURG -- Another day, another walk-off win for the Rays.

On Friday night, Wander Franco saved the Rays with the first walk-off home run of his life. Less than 24 hours later, Randy Arozarena returned to his familiar role as Tampa Bay’s late-inning hero.

The Rays trailed all afternoon until Arozarena capped a three-run ninth-inning rally against Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase with a game-winning single to right field, delivering Tampa Bay a 6-5 win before a sold-out crowd of 25,025 at Tropicana Field.

“They're pumped. They were pumped last night, maybe a little bit more pumped tonight simply because we were down and behind for the entire day,” manager Kevin Cash said. “And to be able to do that against that pitcher is pretty special.”

The Rays have six walk-off victories this season, and Arozarena has finished half of them. His three walk-off hits this year are tied with Boston’s Alex Verdugo for the most in the Majors.

Nothing out of the ordinary for the All-Star outfielder, though, right? He has earned his reputation for taking his game to another level when it matters most.

“It seems that when the lights are the brightest, that man is ready to step up to the plate,” second baseman Brandon Lowe said. “It doesn't matter if it's in a [World Baseball Classic] or in a regular-season game or the postseason, he's ready for it. It's almost like he welcomes the pressure.”

Arozarena’s latest heroics capped an improbable rally against Clase, one of the game’s toughest closers. The Rays struck out 10 times in five innings against rookie starter Gavin Williams, scoring just once on a Luke Raley homer -- his first since July 5, which he attributed to a slump-busting goatee.

“I just knew I had to change something up. I've gone through all my options in the cage, so it was something I had to change,” Raley said. “It's good to get it going again. Hopefully I can build off of it.”

The Rays pieced together their pitching in Tyler Glasnow’s temporary absence, going from Shawn Armstrong to Erasmo Ramírez to Kevin Kelly to Josh Fleming, and found themselves trailing by two runs entering the ninth. But they weren’t ready to roll over.

It was the third time this season the Rays (71-48) have won after trailing by at least two runs in the ninth, tied for the most in the Majors with the Marlins and Astros. They also did so on June 28 at Arizona and April 21 against the White Sox. The victory sealed their fourth series win in their past five, their first series victory at home since June 7-9 and their first back-to-back wins at The Trop since June 8-9.

“If we just keep going out there, taking two out of three, three out of four, good things are going to happen for us down the stretch,” Josh Lowe said.

He led off the ninth by slapping a first-pitch 99 mph cutter back up the middle for a single, then he hustled to second to prevent a double play on Christian Bethancourt’s groundout. Up came Yandy Díaz, who clobbered a hanging slider to deep center field for an RBI double.

“It's always tough when you see one of the best closers in the game coming in,” Josh Lowe said. “But I knew I could set the tone there if I got on base, and that's exactly what my approach was -- just do what I can to get on base and spark a rally.”

The rally continued as Díaz advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Brandon Lowe’s slow-rolling grounder to Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio. Lowe then stole second off Clase, putting him in position to score and earning some good-natured ribbing from his teammates.

“I've had about 12 people telling me they didn't know how fast I actually was,” Brandon Lowe said, grinning. “But I told them, ‘When you can sniff hits, you get a boost in speed.’”

That set the stage for Arozarena, who immediately fell behind in the count with a pair of big hacks on 102.8 mph cutters. At that point, with two outs, Arozarena simply focused on not striking out.

“I choked up a little bit, and I was just trying to put the ball in play because I knew he was throwing pretty hard,” Arozarena said through interpreter Manny Navarro.

Arozarena accomplished that goal, taking a ball in the dirt then fouling off two pitches before slapping the walk-off hit to right field. Ramón Laureano made a diving attempt but came up short. As Brandon Lowe crossed the plate, Arozarena stopped at first, faced his rushing teammates and crossed his arms in his signature celebratory pose.

“It's kind of the same thing that he does in the postseason. He seems to really elevate his game, his mindset, everything when there's a chance for us to do something big,” Cash said. “And he did again today.”