Yandy Diaz had four hits with an RBI in leading the Tampa Bay Rays to a 5-3 victory Wednesday night against the visiting Kansas City Royals at St. Petersburg, Fla.
Among the major league leaders in batting at .332, Diaz registered his third game with at least four hits this season and extended a home on-base streak to 22 games for the Rays, who avoided losing the first three of this four-game set. Teammate Jonathan Aranda added two hits and an RBI.
Griffin Jax (3-5), meanwhile, yielded five hits and two walks, but only two unearned runs, while striking out seven, in five innings for Tampa Bay, which snapped a five-game home skid to Kansas City.
Noah Cameron (4-5) allowed five runs, eight hits and three walks in five innings for the Royals, who had won five-of-six. Josh Rojas clubbed a ninth-inning homer off Bryan Baker (20 saves) and Michael Massey had two hits for Kansas City, which struck out 12 times against five Rays pitchers.
Kansas City put runners on first and second with nobody out in each of the first two innings, but failed to score. The Rays, meanwhile, stranded a pair of runners in the second inning, but came through in the third.
Nick Fortes and Diaz opened that frame with back-to-back singles, and each advanced on Jonny DeLuca’s sacrifice bunt. After Junior Caminero was intentionally walked, Tampa Bay scored two on Ryan Vilade’s groundout to first base, where Jac Caglianone threw wild to home plate. Aranda then followed with an RBI single to left for a 3-0 lead.
The Rays added on in the fourth. With runners on first and third and one out, Diaz’s single made it 4-0. DeLuca followed with an RBI double.
However, some shoddy Rays defense led to two Kansas City runs in the fifth. Carter Jensen walked and went to third on Caglianone’s two-out grounder that turned into a two-base error made by shortstop Taylor Walls. Salvador Perez followed with a liner that left fielder Chandler Simpson missed, allowing both runners to score.
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