Right-hander Zack Littell won in his sixth straight decision, Jonathan Aranda had two RBIs, and the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays edged the visiting Miami Marlins 4-3 on Friday afternoon in the opener of a three-game series.
Coming off the Rays’ first complete game since Ryan Yarbrough in 2021, 647 straight contests ago, Littell (6-5) allowed one run on six hits while striking out four with no walks. Aranda was 2-for-4 and Junior Caminero added two doubles.
Taylor Walls (double), Curtis Mead (stolen base) and Matt Thaiss (RBI) had two hits apiece from the bottom of the order. Brandon Lowe scored twice and walked.
The Rays improved to 13-3 since May 20 and evened their season series with Miami after four games while climbing to a season-best five games over .500. The Marlins lost their fifth in a row.
Miami’s Agustin Ramirez was 3-for-4 with a solo home run, and Otto Lopez hit a two-run homer. Eric Wagaman went 3-for-4 while Dane Myers had two hits with a double.
Marlins right-hander Edward Cabrera (2-2) surrendered three runs (one earned) on six hits over four innings. He struck out five with two walks.
With the game moved up to an afternoon start with the rock band Metallica playing a Friday night show across the street at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ stadium, the Rays scored on Aranda’s first-inning single.
In the third, Miami rookie manager Clayton McCullough was ejected for the first time in his career by home plate umpire Chad Fairchild for arguing base-path interference on Xavier Edwards, who collided with Aranda at first base. Edwards was also ejected.
After Miami first baseman Liam Hicks committed a leadoff error in the third, Aranda and Jake Mangum each had RBI groundouts for a 3-0 lead.
In the fourth, Ramirez got the Marlins on the board by hitting a 3-0 fastball from Littell for his eighth homer.
Thaiss tacked on an insurance run with an RBI single in the seventh for his first Rays multi-hit game, but Lopez’s two-run homer off Edwin Uceta in the eighth trimmed it to one.
Closer Pete Fairbanks posted his 12th save with a perfect ninth.
–Field Level Media
