ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ Well, that was more exciting than necessary.
Having finally gotten some breathing room against the Angels with a pair of runs in the eighth inning on Sunday afternoon, the Rays seemed ready to cruise to victory.
And then Mike Trout hit a one-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Diego Castillo, and the Angels got the tying run in scoring position.
Castillo, in the closer's role with Jose Alvarado tending to family matters, got Albert Pujols to bounce out and struck out Kole Calhoun looking on a 3-2 pitch to close out the 6-5 victory.
The win gave the Rays a split in the four-game series and sends them to New York on Monday one-half game behind the Yankees in the American League East.
For the fifth consecutive game, the Rays were facing an early deficit.
This time, it was opener Ryne Stanek who got into a bases-loaded, no-out jam after his first seven pitches. Tommy La Stella reached on an error by first baseman Ji-Man Choi, Mike Trout singled and Shohei Ohtani walked. Stanek limited the damage by getting Albert Pujols on a sacrifice fly to deep center, and then got Cesar Puello to hit into a double-play.
For a change, the Rays offense answered quickly. With two outs and no one on in the first, Brandon Lowe got the green light on a 3-0 count and drilled an opposite-field homer for a 1-1 tie.
Tampa Bay took a 3-1 lead an inning later on a Yandy Diaz single, a Kevin Kiermaier triple and a Avisail Garcia sacrifice fly.
As effective as Jalen Beeks has looked at times, he does not appear close to graduating to a traditional starting role. In his last eight appearances as a bulk reliever, Beeks has averaged 3 2/3 innings.
On Sunday, he only survived three innings after throwing 69 pitches. Beeks had a 3-2 lead but left with Ohtani on first base in the fifth. Emilio Pagan promptly walked Pujols. The runners advanced on a grounder to first, and Ohtani scored on David Fletcher's infield single for a 3-3 tie.
