Rays 4, Astros 3: Walls walks it off to complete comeback

It’s great to see some fight!

What looked like it would be another quiet night for the Rays offense turned out to be an exciting comeback victory to even the series against Houston.

Jose Caballero made his first start in center field, and Zack Littell looked to continue his run of better form.

Littell managed to work through five innings and hold the Astros to just two runs, but his high pitch count on the night meant the Rays would need four innings out of their bullpen. He finished the night with seven hits allowed, six strikeouts, and no walks.

One of the runs came in the second inning on a solo shot from former Rays All-Star Isaac Paredes to, you guessed it, left field.

Despite trailing until the eighth inning, Kevin Cash utilized his top guys in relief, going from Edwin Uceta to Garrett Cleavinger to Pete Fairbanks all while the score was 2-0 Astros. Part of this might have been due to the Astros A-bullpen, namely Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader, being unavailable after they both pitched on Sunday and Monday. There was an opening, however unlikely, for the Rays to push for a comeback in this spot.

The Rays got the first two men on in the bottom of the eighth after Curtis Mead was hit by a pitch and Yandy Diaz singled to center field. Misner ran for Diaz, and a botched fly ball in left by the Astros led to them getting Mead on a force out at third base. However, now the Rays had Misner on second and the tying run Caballero on first, a much better set up. They pulled off a double steal and now the Rays were really in business. Jonathan Aranda brought them both in to score with a single off of the lefty Steven Okert, tie game.

Rubber arm Manuel Rodriguez made his team-high 23rd appearance of the season and crucially kept the game tied.

Houston brought in Kaleb Ort for his first high leverage appearance of the season according to Baseball Reference, and it went about as well as you’d imagine for him. He walked Christopher Morel to open the inning, and then a Brandon Lowe double gave the Rays two men in scoring position. Taylor Walls got just enough on a fly ball to score Morel and force a rubber match in the series.

Taj Bradley will get the ball for game three on Wednesday afternoon, and face a big test going toe-to-toe with Hunter Brown, one of the early frontrunners for AL Cy Young this season. It’s a 1:10 pm first pitch, so bring plenty of sunscreen and drink plenty of water if you’ll be in attendance at Steinbrenner Field.