Rays avoid home sweep, edge O's on late sac fly

Curtis Mead drove in the tiebreaking run with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Tampa Bay Rays rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Tampa Bay had loaded the bases with one out on three walks off Orioles reliever Craig Kimbrel (6-4). Mead then drove a deep fly ball to right to easily drive in Brandon Lowe with the eventual winning run.

Dylan Carlson had a pinch-hit RBI single and Lowe had a double, walk and two stolen bases for Tampa Bay, which defeated Baltimore for just the second time in 10 games this season and for the first time in seven home games at Tropicana Field.

Manuel Rodriguez (2-2) picked up the win with a scoreless inning of one-hit relief while Pete Fairbanks worked around a two-out hit in the ninth to garner his 23rd save.

Anthony Santander hit a home run, Gunnar Henderson doubled and had three hits and Austin Slater had two hits and a double for Baltimore, which finished a 10-game road trip, its longest of the season, with a 5-5 record.

Albert Suarez, taking over the starting spot for injured Grayson Rodriguez, who was placed on the 15-day injured list on Wednesday with right lat/teres discomfort, threw his second consecutive scoreless start. Suarez allowed four hits and a walk over a career-high 6 2/3 innings while striking out six. He has not allowed a run in 11 2/3 innings while striking out 11 in those starts but hasn't garnered a decision in either contest.

Baltimore took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Santander led off with his 35th home run, a 384-foot drive into the bleachers in left-center field.

Tampa Bay tied it at 1 in the seventh against Orioles reliever Cionel Perez, who took over for Suarez with two outs in the inning. Jose Caballero greeted Perez with hit a pinch-hit double to left and scored on Carlson's pinch-hit bloop single to center, setting the stage for Mead's sacrifice fly an inning later.

--Field Level Media