Luke Raley hit a two-run homer and also tripled and Zach Eflin picked up his eighth win of the season to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 7-0 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series in St. Petersburg. Fla.
Eflin (8-1) allowed three hits and one walk while striking out nine in 6 2/3 scoreless innings to improve to 7-0 at home. He also moved into a tie with Nathan Eovaldi of the Texas Rangers for second-most wins in the majors behind Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan, who picked up his ninth win of the season on Monday at Boston.
Jose Siri also homered and Randy Arozarena had two RBIs for Tampa Bay, which won its fourth straight game. The Rays improved to 27-6 at home this season as Jalen Beeks allowed one hit over 1 1/3 innings of relief and Jake Diekman put the finishing touches on the win with a hitless ninth.
Carlos Correa and Michael A. Taylor each had a double for Minnesota, which finished with just four hits while losing its third straight game. Louie Varland (3-2) took the loss, allowing seven runs on six hits and four walks over six-plus innings. He struck out five.
Tampa Bay took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning. Raley led off with his first career triple and scored on a single by Arozarena. After Harold Ramirez walked, Arozarena tagged and went to third on a long flyout by Taylor Walls. Christian Bethancourt then blooped a single to center to drive in Arozarena and send Ramirez to third. Vidal Brujan then drove in Ramirez with a safety squeeze.
The Rays extended the lead to 5-0 in the fifth when Wander Franco walked and scored on Raley’s 11th home run of the season, a 450-foot drive off the top of the batter’s eye in dead center.
Siri made it 6-0 in the seventh when he led off with his 11th homer of the season, a 457-foot drive deep into the bleachers in left center. Yandy Diaz followed with a walk, took third on a double to the gap in right center and scored on a groundout by Arozarena to make it 7-0.
–Field Level Media