Rays show some muscle before, after Siri's hustle 

HOUSTON -- Leading off the ninth inning against Astros closer Ryan Pressly, Jose Siri slapped a line drive through the left side and burst out of the batter’s box.

For most players, it would have been a single. Not for Siri. His sights were set on second base.

The speedy center fielder made a hard turn around first, slid safely into second and stared into the Rays’ dugout on the third-base side. He clapped his hands hard and raised them, trying to transfer his energy to his teammates.

“They did a good job of just keeping on,” Siri said through interpreter Manny Navarro. “We never give up.”

After seven innings of frustrating missed opportunities on Friday night, Siri and the Rays wouldn’t let their last one go to waste. Locked in a tie game in the series opener, and mired in a miserable month for its lineup, Tampa Bay rode Siri’s hustle double and a pair of productive outs from Christian Bethancourt and Yandy Díaz to pull out a 4-3 win at Minute Maid Park.

“They played perfect baseball in that ninth inning,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “Any time you can do that, especially in a close game, it's to your advantage.”

Siri’s game-winning run was an uplifting start to the Rays’ nine-game, 10-day road trip through Houston, the Bronx and Detroit, with Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline right in the middle of it all.

Tampa Bay will hope it’s also the beginning of a better finish to a brutal month, as the team is still just 6-15 in July.

If nothing else, though, it let the Rays leave the ballpark happy on a night that could have been incredibly frustrating.

Tampa Bay scored first on Brandon Lowe’s first-inning, three-run homer off Houston starter Cristian Javier, then went quiet. The Rays left the bases loaded in the fourth inning, stranded a runner at second base in the sixth and seventh, left a man on in the eighth and saw Wander Franco get picked off at first in the fifth.

Meanwhile, ace Shane McClanahan gave up three runs over five innings despite having some of his best stuff of the season. His average fastball clocked in at 98.1 mph, up 1.4 mph from his season average, and the Astros couldn’t do anything with his changeup.

The left-hander struck out six without a walk and induced 17 swinging strikes.

But Houston scored in the first after Jose Altuve’s leadoff triple, and José Abreu hammered a 1-0 curveball to left for a two-run homer in the fourth. The Rays decided McClanahan was done after five despite throwing only 86 pitches, so he left with the game tied.

“One pitch, obviously, I wish I had back,” McClanahan said. “But overall, I was very proud of myself tonight -- and very proud of these guys.”

Tampa Bay’s bullpen put up zeros the rest of the way, with Robert Stephenson, Kevin Kelly, Colin Poche and Pete Fairbanks each pitching an inning. That set the stage for the Rays’ final rally.

Siri, acquired from Houston nearly a year ago, pulled Pressly’s low curveball to left field and dashed to get himself in scoring position.

“That's what he can do,” manager Kevin Cash said. “He can change the game with his speed, and certainly impacted it right there.”

Up came Bethancourt, initially dead-set on bunting Siri to third until he took one pitch for a called strike and fouled off anotheron a bunt attempt. Bethancourt took the next two pitches, both sliders in the dirt, but said he heard Cash yelling from the dugout.

“So I was like, ‘Just get the ball the other way. Do whatever you can,’” Bethancourt said. “I was just trying everything I could to get the ball to the other side of the field. … I told myself that if I don't do it, I'm not going to eat today to punish myself.”

But Bethancourt got to enjoy his postgame meal, after all, as he swatted a 2-2 slider to right field that allowed Siri to scamper to third.

“That was a big at-bat,” Cash said.

“Honestly,” Lowe added. “Extremely impressive.”

That brought up Díaz, the Rays’ steadiest producer amid a team-wide slump and the perfect hitter to have at the plate when they needed a ball in play.

Sure enough, the leadoff man -- back in the lineup while still nursing a sore groin -- launched an 0-1 fastball deep enough to right to drive in Siri.

“You get Siri on third base and Yandy up, you just kind of let out a sigh of relief,” Lowe said. “Like, 'OK, something good is going to happen here.'”