With fireworks booming in the background much of the night Thursday, the Rays and Royals put on a pretty entertaining show inside Kauffman Stadium. The Rays had more blasts and hung on for a 10-8 victory, extending their streak of series wins to five straight, their longest since last August. As part of that run, they have won seven of their last 10 games and 10 of 14. And they moved back above .500 at 44-43.
The Rays did a good job building an early lead — scoring in each of the first three innings and the fifth, and extended the advantage to 9-4 in the sixth — and a bad job hanging on to it.
Palacios’ first error, on a leadoff grounder by Michael Massey, and a single by ex-Ray Hunter Renfroe got the Royals within 9-5 and ended starter Zach Eflin’s night. Reliever Garrett Cleavinger allowed a double by Garrett Hampson on a fly to left-center that Siri over-ran, hit Freddy Fermin, and got Maikel Garcia to fly out.
Then they almost gave it all away in a sloppy sixth inning, with second baseman Richie Palacios making two errors and Jose Siri overrunning a fly ball to left-center field, leading to the Royals scoring three and threatening for more.
Manager Kevin Cash then went to Jason Adam, his usual later-inning setup man, who got the ground ball for the double play they wanted. But with Fermin sliding in hard, Palacios’ relay to first went wide, allowing Hampson to score, making it 9-7. A single by Bobby Witt Jr. put runners on the corners and the go-ahead run to the plate.
The Rays got to nine with a team effort, including home runs by Jonny DeLuca (his first since May 18) and Brandon Lowe, and a two-out, two-run single by Ben Rortvedt. Witt tried to force the action by stealing second. And Rortvedt made one of the game’s biggest plays, firing a strike to the base to get him out and end the rally, with Adam jumping up in celebration.
By the end of the night, the Rays and Royals combined for 18 runs and 26 hits, and they used 11 pitchers. Eflin worked into the sixth, allowing seven hits and six runs (five earned) for his second straight win, improving to 5-5. Adam finished the sixth and worked the seventh, Kevin Kelly had the eighth, and Pete Fairbanks handled the ninth, allowing a two-out solo homer to Witt.
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