Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe and Randy Arozarena each delivered RBI singles in the eighth inning that rallied the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night in St. Petersburg, Fla
The Rays were held scoreless through six innings by Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas but responded in the late innings to take the interleague series opener
Isaac Paredes homered for Tampa Bay in the seventh inning, tying the score at 1
Willson Contreras capped an 11-pitch at-bat in the ninth inning with a one-out home run for St. Louis, but the Pete Fairbanks nonetheless collected his 15th save
Jason Adam (3-2) worked a scoreless eighth inning for the win
Josh Lowe started the Rays' eighth-inning rally with a leadoff triple off Mikolas, who was then replaced by Andre Pallante
With one out and the Cardinals' infield playing in, Diaz bounced an RBI single to center. Wander Franco then singled, putting runners on first and second, and Brandon Lowe delivered his run-scoring single. Arozarena followed with a single to score Franco and give the Rays a three-run cushion
Before the Rays' offense heated up late, the two starters were in control
Rays' right-hander Zach Eflin allowed just one run on four hits in seven innings. The 29-year-old struck out eight and didn't allow a walk. Of his 99 pitches, 71 were strikes
In seven-plus innings, Mikolas (6-8) was charged with two runs on eight hits with five strikeouts in a tough-luck loss
The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead on Nolan Arenado's home run to lead off the second inning. It was the slugger's 24th of the season
In the third, Lars Nootbaar tripled with two outs but Eflin retired Paul Goldschmidt on a groundout to third keep the Cardinals at one run
Arenado's home run held until the seventh inning when the Rays tied it on Paredes' one-out home run, his 22nd
St. Lois made more noise in the eighth, with Tommy Edman leading off the inning with a walk off Adam. But Edman was thrown out trying to steal second, meaning Nootbaar's subsequent walk simply put another runner on first. An out later, Nolan Gorman drove the ball to the warning track in center field but Jose Siri made a leaping catch near the wall
--Field Level Medi