Rangers Lose To Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Logan Forsythe was happy to get back in the starting lineup after missing the past four games, and the Tampa Bay Rays were happy to get his bat back.
Forsythe hit a three-run homer to cap a five-run fourth inning for the Rays in their 8-4 win against the Texas Rangers at Tropicana Field on Sunday.
Tampa Bay (52-70) took two of three games from the AL West leaders.
“Great series, from the way it started to the way it finished, that was an outstanding effort by our guys,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We pitched well, made some big pitches. Really liked some of the little things we did.”
The Rays trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the fourth when second baseman Tim Beckham hit a double down the right-field line. Right fielder Steven Souza Jr. and left fielder Corey Dickerson followed with singles and Beckham scored to tie the game. Catcher Bobby Wilson executed a perfect bunt on a squeeze play that scored Souza Jr. to give the Rays a 3-2 lead.
Forsythe, who was dealing with back spasms last week, came up with two runners on and sent a 2-1 offering from Rangers starter Martin Perez over the wall in left-center.
“I was a little tight in that first at-bat but after that I felt like I let some swings go a little bit,” Forsythe said. “After that it felt good. I was happy to help the team out and hopefully I’m in there and ready to go every day from here on out.”
The Rangers (73-52) cut the lead in half with a solo home run from
Drew Stubbs in the bottom of the fifth off Rays starter Drew Smyly.
Texas threatened again in the seventh after an RBI single from pinch hitter Mitch Moreland made the score 6-4 with two men on base and two outs. The Rays escaped further damage, however, when reliever Brad Boxberger struck out Delino DeShields to end the inning.
“We had Boxberger get up and sit back down, we don’t like doing that,” Cash said. “But he gave us what we needed today.”
Tampa Bay got two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when Souza Jr. hit a home run to right-center field with Brad Miller on base. The homer was Souza Jr.’s 13th of the season and gave the Rays an 8-4 lead.
The Rangers had taken a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning on a two-run homer by DeShields that also scored catcher Robinson Chirinos. The Rays got their first run in the bottom of the third on an RBI double by Even Longoria.
“It’s a challenge to recover from a five-run inning,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “I felt like we had a decent approach against Smyly. We hit some balls hard, obviously Delino to get us on the board early with the home run, and then have Stubbs hit a home run. But we didn’t get a big hit to really get us back to where we could present a real threat.”
Smyly gave up four runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings to improve to 6-11 for the season and 4-0 in his last six starts. He also struck out seven.
“I think our pitching is really coming around the second half of the season and our lineup is very capable of doing damage like they did today,” Smyly said. “When you have those two things, you’re going to win games.”
Perez gave up six runs on five hits in six innings. The loss drops him to 8-9.
“They scored some runs but I felt good,” Perez said. “I felt good with my pitches, and there were some good pitches they didn’t swing (at) either. That’s part of the game.”
