Rays go up by Nine Through Three, Stay Lowe, Never Look Back

St. Petersburg, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays bats got going early scoring all nine of their runs with a crooked 3 in the second and a crooked 6 in the third. The first three innings alone took an hour and twelve minutes, and the Rays sent twelve batters to the dish in the third.

Brandon Lowe went yard for 369 feet in the second with two on off the Mo-Town Kitty’s reliever Tyler Holton, the loser (1-1). Holton was treated rudely in the Trop being banged for five hits, 6 earned runs including Lowe’s homer. Lowe was 2 for 2 with the homer and 4 RBI.

The Tigers scored in the top of the first on a double by Spencer Torkelson which scored Cesar Hernandez who reached on an error by Rays third baseman Yandy Diaz. Then came the nine unanswered runs by the Rays in the second and third and the Rays would not look back.

Drew Rasmussen, who started on the hill for the Rays, was solid. Rasmussen went three solid innings, yielding only one hit and one earned run and took the win (1-0).

The Tigers’ offensive stars were Spencer Torkelson and Justyn-Henry Malloy with two hits apiece as well as Austin Meadows who had two RBI.