Rays Lose Rare Slugfest to Marlins, Fall 11-10 in Extra Innings on Saturday

TAMPA, Fla. — It's been more than two years since the Tampa Bay Rays have played a game where both teams scored in double digits. But it happened on Saturday, with the Miami Marlins winning 11-10 in 10 innings, and somewhat surprisingly, Miami won the game with two great defensive plays.

It was a crazy game where the Rays took a four-run lead early, gave it all back, went back up by two, then fell behind 10-6 after a six-run fifth. Then they rallied to tie it again, only to lose in extra innings.

Miami got a bloop single off of Garrett Cleavinger in the top of the 10th to plate ghost runner Otto Lopez. And in the bottom of the inning, Miami second baseman Xavier Edwards, a former Tampa Bay farmhand, made two spectacular plays to shut down the Rays.

Jake Mangum hit a shot that spun Edwards around, but he was able to get a throw off to first just in time. Ghost runner Kameron Misner advanced to third. Jose Caballero hit another blast Edwards' way, and he grabbed that one and threw home, getting Misner by a step. Josh Lowe struck out to end the game, ending the Rays' four-game winning streak.

"Both of those plays were tremendous plays,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "For him to stop Mangum's ball , and the kind of acrobatic throw he made on Cabby's ... the ball might have benefitted them that the ball took a high hop. If it stays down, maybe it's a more difficult throw, but those are elite, high-caliber plays that he executed really well.''

The Rays jummped out to an early lead, scoring four runs off of Miami starter Ryan Weathers, who was hit in the head with a throw down to second before his first pitch. Christopher Morel, who hit just .143 in May and hadn't hit a home run since April 24, had the big blast, a three-run homer than traveled 438, driving in Junior Caminero, who had reached on an Edwards error, and Caballero, who had walked. They added the fourth run when when Danny Jansen doubled and scored on a Taylor Walls double.

But Rays starter Taj Bradley — who got roughed up by the Marlins two weeks ago in Miami — couldn't hold the lead. In the third, he gave up two singles and then an RBI double by Edwards. Then Bradley grooved a cutter to Marlins left field Jesus Sanchez, who hit a 425-foot blast over the wall in right-center to tie the game.

The Rays jumped back ahead in the fourth, making it 6-4 on a Jansen two-run homer. But Bradley came out and gave it all back again in the top of the fifth. He loaded the bases with a walk and two singles, and Cash had seen enough

"His stuff wasn't quite as crisp as he wanted to be, and I know he came into the game highly motivated to reset himself from the start down in Miami,'' Cash said. "It looked like his stuff wasn't quite as sharp and his velo was maybe down a tick to start the game. We gave him an early lead and have all the confidence that he was going to be able to hold it, but things didn't go his way today.''

Mason Montgomery came in, but he struggled, too. He allowed three doubles and two singles, with Miami taking a 10-6 lead.

The Rays rallied, though. Morel hit is second homer in the sixth, and then Walls homered after a Jansen single to make it 10-9. Brandon Lowe tied it in the seventh with a home run, the Rays' fifth of the game — tying a season high — and his 13th of the year.

Morel, Jansen and Walls, the Rays' 7-8-9 hitters, set franchise records for the bottom of the order with a comblined seven extra base hits, four home runs and 23 total bases. Their nine RBIs tied a 13-year-old club record.

It was the first time in MLB history that 7-8-9 hitters all had multiple extra base hits that included a home run for all three.

This was the first time the Rays had lost while scoring double-digits runs since Aug. 7, 2010, when they lost 17-11 in Toronto. They had won 147 games in a row scoring 10 runs or more until Saturday. It was the first such home loss since April 20, 2005 when they lost 12-10 to Texas.

It was the first time they had played a game where both teams scored in double digits since beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-10 on May 28, 2023, a span of 333 games. They are 287-12 all-time when scoring in double digits.

The pitching meltdown was hard to swallow because the Rays had gone 17 straight games with allowing four runs or fewer, also the longest streak in franchise history. The 11 runs allowed tied a season high. They gave up 11 to the Los Angeles Angels in early April.

It was the first time in Morel's career that he had three extra-base hits. His 438-foot blast was the longest of the year by the Rays.

The two teams meet again on Sunday, with Drew Rasmussen on the mound for the Rays. He's pitched 23 scoreless innings. The game starts at 12:10 p.m. ET.

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