The Tampa Bay Rays manufactured a run on Francisco Mejia's sacrifice fly in the eighth inning that lifted them to a 1-0 win over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
With the win, the Rays avoided losing three in a row for the first time this season.
Tampa Bay broke through when Milwaukee reliever Peter Strzelecki (2-3) clipped Luke Raley with a pitch. Raley stole second and advanced to third on catcher William Contreras' throwing error.
Mejia's sacrifice fly to left field scored Raley with the game's lone run.
Pete Fairbanks (fourth save) had to work out of trouble in the ninth inning after Jesse Winker singled and pinch-runner Brice Turang stole second with one out. A wild pitch moved him to third one out later. But Fairbanks ended it by getting Tyrone Taylor to bounce back to the mound.
Reliever Jason Adam (1-1) threw the eighth inning, and picked up the win.
Rays ace Shane McClanahan went seven scoreless innings, giving up six hits and a walk. The left-hander was able to work out of jams, courtesy of seven strikeouts.
Milwaukee's Adrian Houser tossed six shutout innings, scattering four hits. The right-hander struck out four and walked one, before giving way to Joel Payamps in the seventh.
The few chances each team had were quickly erased.
In the sixth inning, the Brewers had an opportunity after Contreras laced a one-out double to center. But McClanahan left him stranded by retiring Christian Yelich on a fly ball to left and getting Willy Adames to ground out to third.
Tampa Bay squandered a first-and-third, one-out chance in the third inning.
Jose Siri and Mejia had back-to-back, one-out singles, but with runners on the corners Josh Lowe bounced to first. After getting the force at second, Siri was caught in a rundown at third, and tagged out to complete a double play.
Owen Miller put the Brewers in position to get on the board in the eighth inning. After reaching on an infield single, Miller stole second and he advanced to third on Yelich's grounder to second. But Adam struck out Adames to end the threat.
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