BOSTON — The Rays needed a few things to go right Thursday afternoon to rebound from Wednesday’s lopsided loss to the Red Sox.
A good start by Drew Rasmussen, the right-handed reliever pressed into the rotation by Ryan Yarbrough’s COVID-19-related absence, gave them a good foundation.
A quality sixth-inning at-bat by rookie Wander Franco produced the key hit, a two-run tie-breaking homer, while Mike Zunino and Kevin Kiermaier also chipped in.
A team effort from the bullpen, with Collin McHugh, JT Chargois, Louis Head and Ryan Sherriff combining to cover the final five innings.
And the result was a deep breath and an 8-1 victory, with Rays pitchers allowing just two hits.
The Rays improved their American League-best record to 70-45 and extended their East division lead to five games over the Red Sox, who they play seven more times over the next month.
Rasmussen, pitching on a sweltering afternoon with a first-pitch temperature of 95 degrees and a feels-like over 100, gave the Rays all they could have asked — four strong innings, allowing one run on one hit, while throwing only 50 pitches.
The score was 1-1 when Brandon Lowe opened the Rays’ sixth with a single off starter Tanner Houck.
Franco, the 20-year-old shortstop, battled through 10 pitches, fouling off six, before driving a ball high off the center-field end of the Green Monster wall for a two-run homer, though it wasn’t immediately clear.
The ball hit to the left of the yellow stripe, so it was in play but then caromed onto the flat elevated area that includes the base of the flagpole adjacent to the tarped-over center-field seats. The umpires huddled briefly and ruled a home run based on the complex Fenway Park ground rules. (And to think some people get worked up over balls hitting the catwalks at Tropicana Field.)
The Rays got another run that inning on a balk, then four more in the eighth, one sparked by a Joey Wendle triple and three more when Kiermaier doubled for his third hit of the day and Zunino blasted a ball over the signage above the seats on top of the Green Monster for his 23rd homer, estimated at 432 feet.
The Rays relievers closed it out from there.
