Brandon Lowe broke an 0-for-15 slump with a homer and a triple, Isaac Paredes had five RBIs and the visiting Tampa Bay Rays rocked the hapless Chicago White Sox 14-5 on Thursday night.
Lowe, whose previous hit was a walk-off homer Friday against the White Sox, collected a triple, a homer and a single in the first five innings off Chicago starter Dylan Cease (2-1).
Lowe went 3-for-4 with three runs, three RBIs and a walk.
Tampa Bay starter Shane McClanahan (5-0) allowed two runs and five hits in five innings, plus five strikeouts and two walks. With a 10-run lead, he was removed at 73 pitches.
Yandy Diaz notched three hits — including his seventh homer — and scored twice, and Luke Raley had a homer among three hits and drove in three. Josh Lowe also posted three hits.
The Rays improved to 18-0 when scoring first and 20-0 when tallying at least four times.
Cease lasted four-plus innings, surrendering seven runs (six earned) on nine hits.
Chicago’s Jake Burger homered, doubled and had two runs and RBIs apiece, and Adam Haseley had two hits and an RBI, but Chicago’s skid hit a major league-high eight.
After Brandon Lowe’s leadoff triple in the second inning, Paredes and Josh Lowe singled to set the table. Raley ripped a one-out, two-run double to put a three-spot on the scoreboard as the Rays snapped their 20-inning scoreless streak.
With two outs in the bottom half, Lenyn Sosa broke the ice for Chicago by shooting a double to right to score Burger, who had led off with a walk.
Brandon Lowe got that marker back in the third by lifting the eighth pitch from Cease to right for his seventh homer — a towering 358-foot shot that sailed out off a 41-degree launch angle.
Burger led off the fourth by answering with a shot to left for his sixth deep ball to cut it to 4-2.
In the fifth, Brandon Lowe chased Cease by finishing a 10-pitch at-bat with a single to plate two more and make it 6-2. Paredes’ fielder’s choice added another run.
A fielding error by first baseman Andrew Vaughn helped the Rays score five times – four unearned – in the sixth for a 12-2 lead. Paredes’ three-run double highlighted the scoring.
Diaz and Raley later hit solo homers, and Burger doubled in a run.
With right fielder Raley pitching in the ninth, Chicago scored a pair on Romy Gonzalez’s pinch-hit triple and Haseley’s single.
–Field Level Media
