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Major League Baseball
Tampa Bay 4, Cincinnati 0
When: 4:10 PM ET, Saturday, July 27, 2024
Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Temperature: Indoors
Umpires: Home - Victor Carapazza, 1B - Adam Hamari, 2B - Austin Jones, 3B - Edwin Moscoso
Attendance: 23464

Alex Jackson and Yandy Diaz hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning, Zack Littell tossed seven scoreless innings, and the Tampa Bay Rays blanked the Cincinnati Reds 4-0 on Saturday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Littell (4-7) allowed three hits with one walk and five strikeouts for Tampa Bay, which won for the third time in its last five games.

Kevin Kelly and Colin Poche each pitched a scoreless inning to help the Rays even the three-game interleague series after Cincinnati won the opener 3-2 in 10 innings on Friday.

Cincinnati was held to four singles and saw its three-game winning streak end.

The Rays took a 1-0 lead in the second inning against Andrew Abbott (9-7) when Jose Siri's fielder's choice grounder scored Curtis Mead from third.

The score remained that way until the bottom of the fifth, when the Rays pounded Abbott, forcing him from the game without recording an out.

Jackson, who was hitting .101 at the time, and Diaz began the inning with their home runs -- Jackson's third and Diaz's ninth -- then Amed Rosario and Brandon Lowe hit back-to-back doubles to make the score 4-0. Tony Santillan replaced Abbott after that and walked Isaac Paredes before retiring the next three batters in order.

Abbott allowed four runs on eight hits over four-plus innings. He walked two and struck out two.

The Reds' best scoring threat against Littell, who earned his first victory since July 2, came with runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth inning. But Littell escaped unscathed when Jeimer Candelario lined out to second.

Tampa Bay improved to 39-2 when leading after seven innings. After the Reds put a runner on in the ninth on Spencer Steer's one-out walk, Poche retired the next two batters to secure the victory.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Cincinnati   Tampa Bay
Andrew Abbott Player Zack Littell
Loss W/L Win
4.0 IP 7.0
2 Strikeouts 5
8 Hits 3
9.00 ERA 0.00
Hitting
Cincinnati   Tampa Bay
Noelvi Marte Player Curtis Mead
1 Hits 2
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
1 TB 2
.500 Avg 1.000
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Cincinnati 4 0 4 .138 8 5 0 2 1 0
Tampa Bay 8 2 18 .267 15 5 4 4 0 0