ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Yonny Chirinos allowed one run in five innings, Mike Brosseau collected three hits, including a home run, and the Rays completed a sweep of the Marlins with a 7-2 Sunday at Tropicana Field.
Tampa Bay (65-48) has won six straight games, matching a season high, and eight of its past nine games. The Rays are 17 games over .500 for the first time since June 10. They've scored at least six runs in seven straight games, the longest such streak in team history.
Chirinos, who threw only 63 pitches, left the game after the fifth inning because of right middle finger inflammation. He allowed two hits, a Brian Anderson home run in the fourth inning and a Harold Ramirez double in the sixth. In a bounceback outing, the 25-year-old struck out four and walked one. He allowed seven runs in four innings in his last appearance, July 28 vs. the Blue Jays.
The Rays capitalized on Marlins miscues to get on the board in the first inning. After Matt Duffy walked on four pitches, Tommy Pham hit what should have been a double-play ground ball to shortstop Miguel Rojas. The ball ricocheted off Rojas' glove and into center field. Duffy reached third on the error, and Jesus Aguilar's sacrifice fly brought him home. Brosseau singled later in the inning to knock in Pham. The second baseman added a home run in the third inning, driving an 0-2 fastball into the left-field seats to give Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead.
The Rays broke the game open in the bottom of the seventh. Pham walked to lead off the inning and came around on a Travis d'Arnaud single. Avisail Garcia's double off the top of the center-field wall plated two more runs to extend Tampa Bay's lead to 6-1. Aguilar added more insurance in the eighth with a 446-foot bomb, his first homer since being traded to the Rays on Tuesday.
The Rays featured an all right-handed lineup against Marlins starting left-hander Caleb Smith. The strategy paid off, as Tampa Bay recorded six hits in Smith's five innings of work. Smith had allowed six hits in only one other game this season and had held righties to a .189 batting average and .255 on-base percentage.
