Tampa Bay 11, Minnesota 4
When: 4:05 PM ET, Saturday, September 4, 2021
Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Temperature:
Indoors
Umpires:
Home -
Mike Muchlinski, 1B -
Jim Wolf, 2B -
Junior Valentine, 3B -
Sam Holbrook
Attendance:
13861
By Field Level Media
Rookie Randy Arozarena went 3-for-4 and hit one of Tampa Bay's season-high six home runs Saturday in the Rays' 11-4 throttling of the Minnesota Twins in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Yandy Diaz (2-for-4, four RBIs), Jordan Luplow, Manuel Margot, Nelson Cruz and Brandon Lowe went deep for Tampa Bay (86-50), which leads the second-place New York Yankees by 7 1/2 games in the American League East.
Arozarena tripled, scored three times and was hit by a pitch but struck out in the seventh, a double short of a cycle.
Tampa Bay's Wander Franco returned after a one-game absence and was 2-for-5 with a double, two runs and an RBI.
With his first-inning RBI single, the rookie shortstop extended his on-base streak to 34 games -- the third-longest in history by a player under age 21.
Though he allowed four runs and four hits in five innings, including two homers, starter Chris Archer (1-1) notched his first Rays' win since May 17, 2018.
Dietrich Enns' three scoreless innings resulted in his first career save.
With the power-fueled victory, the Rays claimed the series and exacted revenge on Minnesota (58-77), which won two of three from the American League East leaders last month in Minneapolis.
Jorge Polanco paced Minnesota by going 3-for-4 with a homer, double, two runs and two RBIs.
Miguel Sano homered and Rob Refsnyder was for 2-for-2 with two walks, but the Twins lost their fourth straight game.
Starter Andrew Albers (1-1) was pounded for nine runs and 10 hits -- four homers -- over three innings.
After Arozarena's leadoff triple in the first inning, Franco scored him with a single up the middle. The rookie then tagged up and advanced to second on a foul fly to right before scoring on Diaz's single.
Arozarena and Franco produced two-out hits in the second, with the Rays going up 3-0 on Albers' balk.
Diaz then slammed Albers' 1-0 slider to center -- his 10th homer -- for a three-run shot. Luplow followed by going back-to-back for his ninth homer and a 7-0 advantage.
Leading off the third, Margot hit his 10th homer to left-center field and Arozarena added his 19th for a 9-0 lead.
In the fourth, Max Kepler's RBI groundout and Sano's 24th long ball pulled the Twins to 9-2, but solo homers by Cruz (27th) and Lowe (32nd) matched it in the bottom half.
The game's final runs came on Polanco's 26th homer -- a two-run blast -- in the fifth.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
| Minnesota |
|
Tampa Bay |
|
Andrew Albers |
Player |
Chris Archer
|
|
Loss |
W/L |
Win |
|
3.0 |
IP |
5.0 |
|
2 |
Strikeouts |
3 |
|
10 |
Hits |
4 |
|
27.00 |
ERA |
7.20 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Minnesota
|
9 |
2 |
17 |
.265 |
13 |
8 |
4 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
| Tampa Bay
|
13 |
6 |
34 |
.351 |
14 |
7 |
10 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
For more information, contact us