BOSTON — The end result was another win, the Rays’ 87th of this seemingly special season. But it was how they ended up on the right side of the 11-10, 10-inning final with the Red Sox that made it stand out.
Initially, how the Rays turned what seemed to be a Labor Day blowout for the home team with a 7-1 lead after two innings into one of the most interesting, eventful and — at nearly five hours — longest games of the season.
Among the highlights was Wander Franco tying Mickey Mantle’s American League mark for players 20 and under by extending his on-base streak to 36 games and also rapping his first career four-hit game.
Also, Nelson Cruz’s “Little League” grand slam — a bases-loaded liner to center field that thanks to two Red Sox errors allowed all three runners and Cruz to circle the bases.
Then, eventually, how they won it.
First with Austin Meadows delivering the tying run leading off the ninth with an inside-the-park homer on a ball that caromed off the center-field wall.
Then with Cruz delivering the decisive run with a hard single off the glove of first baseman Franchy Cordero that scored Randy Arozarena, who started the inning as the runner at second. And Brandon Lowe following with a single to score Cruz.
Collin McHugh allowed one run in the Red Sox to load the bases in the 10th but closed it out.
The win improved the Rays’ American League-leading record to 87-51 and increased their East division lead to a season-high 8 1/2 games over the Yankees, who lost again Monday.
Ryan Yarbrough put the Rays in a huge hole with a brutal start, allowing seven runs while lasting only two innings, with 11 of the 17 batters he faced reaching base. Worse, Yarbrough increased the burden on the already taxed bullpen, as starter Luis Patino lasted just 2 2/3 innings Sunday.
Down 7-1, the Rays came back in the fourth to make it interesting. And how they did so was quite entertaining.
With two outs, they loaded the bases on singles by Taylor Walls, Arozarena and Franco. Cruz laced a ball to center that eluded Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo. That was enough for three runs to score and Cruz to get to third, and when second baseman Taylor Motter’s errant throw went into the dugout, Cruz trotted home. The play originally was scored a triple for the 41-year-old Cruz — which would have been his second of the season — then changed to a three-base error on Verdugo.
The Rays got to 7-6 with a run in the sixth, when Cash left righty-swinging Jordan Luplow in to face right-hander Garrett Richards, and he delivered an RBI single. The Sox got a run back when Motter, claimed off waivers last week from Colorado, tripled on a ball Margot couldn’t corral in center and scored on a single by another ex-Ray, Hunter Renfroe.
The Rays made it a one-run game again in the seventh. Mike Zunino, pinch-hitting for Francisco Mejia (who left with a right shoulder contusion), singled and reached second as Motter mishandled the throw, then went to third on a ground out and scored on Arozarena’s single.
The Sox took it back to a two-run margin in their seventh when No. 9 hitter Jonathan Arauz homered off J.P. Feyereisen.
And the Rays got it back to one run again in their eighth when Cruz went with the more traditional blast over the Green Monster wall in left, his 28th homer of the season and ninth since the July 22 trade from Minnesota.
