MIAMI — First it looked like Austin Meadows and Ryan Yarbrough were going to win the game for the Rays.
Then it seemed like the bullpen was going to lose it.
And then Joey Wendle saved the day, with a three-run homer in the ninth that led the Rays to a dramatic 6-4 win over the Marlins. Diego Castillo worked the bottom of the ninth for the save.
Friday’s game seemed to be playing out quite similarly to Thursday’s opener for the Rays.
Their long-haired starting pitcher was dealing, as Yarbrough blanked the Marlins into the sixth, nearly matching Tyler Glasnow’s effort the day before. And Meadows again broke a scoreless tie with a homer, this one in the sixth, two innings earlier.
That put the game, with the benefit of an extra run thanks to Manuel Margot’s seventh-inning homer, in the usually capable hands of the Rays relievers.
But this time, the bullpen failed.
Chaz Roe allowed two to get on with two outs in the seventh, and then Ryan Sherriff allowed three to score.
Roe struck out the first two in the seventh, then allowed a triple to Jazz Chisholm, and a walk to Jorge Alfaro.
With lefty Corey Dickerson, the ex-Ray, announced as the pinch-hitter, Rays manager Kevin Cash went for lefty Ryan Sherriff. That didn’t work, as Sheriff allowed a run-scoring double to Dickerson on a ball hit down the third-base line, then a two-run single to Miguel Rojas.
But the Rays came back in the ninth. Brandon Lowe, who cost the Rays an extra run in the eighth with a throwing error, singled, as did Yandy Diaz. Then Wendle crushed an Anthony Bass pitch to right.
Yarbrough went 5 2/3 innings scattering four hits, striking out three and throwing 41 of his 65 pitches for strikes. Glasnow went six innings on Thursday, allowing one hit and striking out six, throwing 57 of 77 pitches for strikes.
Yarbrough left in line for what would have been his first win as a starter after 17 games without, going back to Aug. 11, 2019, in Seattle, when Cash pulled him one-out shy of the team’s first complete game since May 14, 2016, a streak that still stands. With his winless streak as a starter now at 18, he broke the team record, having previously matched Jason Hammel’s 2006-07 run of futility.
The Rays have begun a season 2-0 for just the fourth time in their 24 seasons.
