ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Manager Kevin Cash reminded people before Monday's matinee that the Rays wouldn't have things easy against the last-place Orioles, as proven by the hard play and hustle the O's showed in the series the teams split in Baltimore less than two weeks ago.
And he was right.
It took 10 innings, but the Rays prevailed as Tommy Pham singled in Joey Wendle with two outs to give them a 5-4 walkoff win.
Joey Wendle got the winning rally started with a one-out walk off Dillon Tate. He moved to second on a ground out by Austin Meadows.
With the win, the Rays improved to a season-high 23 games over .500 at 81-58 and maintained their hold on the top AL wild-card spot.
The Rays were coming off a sweep of the Indians that put them back atop the AL wild-card race, and got off to a good start in Monday's matinee.
They took a 2-0 lead in the third when Meadows hit a two-run homer, the 25th of his stellar season.
And they doubled it to 4-0 two innings later when Wendle was hit by a pitch with two outs, Meadows singled and Pham continued his warming trend with a two-run double.
Starter Ryan Yarbrough had been working effectively in posting five shutout innings and throwing only 63 pitches.
And with a doubleheader on Tuesday Cash made it clear they were looking to get Yarbrough as deep in the game they could.
But the sixth inning proved to be his undoing.
Hanser Alberto started things for the Orioles with a leadoff homer, then Yarbrough got the next two outs.
But a single by Renato Nunez and a well-executed bunt hit by Jonathan Villar set them up for more. Veteran Mark Trumbo, making his season debut due to a knee issues, made his first hit a big one, doubling in both runs.
Yarbrough then got locked in a 13-pitch at-bat with Pedro Severino, which included five straight fouls before he rolled a grounder through the second base hole vacated by the shift.
And to make it worse, Meadows made an extremely weak throw that allowed Trumbo, who wasn't exactly flying around the bases, to score.
The Rays had a chance to go ahead in the eighth when Pham was hit by a pitch with one out in the eighth and then stole second, but Ji-Man Choi and Travis d'Arnaud struck out.
The teams will play a traditional doubleheader on Tuesday, starting at 3:10, as the result of a change to the schedule to avoid potential impact from Hurricane Dorian. They originally were slated for single games Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon.
