ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There have been a lot of demands on Randy Arozarena lately.
The Rays slugger and the star of the World Baseball Classic enjoyed entertaining his “Randy Land” section on Friday night, and then on Sunday, the foreign minister of Mexico — his adopted home — came to Tropicana Field to honor him for representing the country in the WBC this spring.
Still, when his fans called on Monday night, Arozarena stepped up.
He walked up to the plate in the sixth inning with the fans chanting his name, and responded by hammering a solo home run. He ultimately scored twice Monday night as the Rays beat the Blue Jays 6-4 in front of a season-low crowd of 8,857 at Tropicana Field.
On a night that the Rays welcomed back Kevin Kiermaier, the longtime face of the franchise who left via free agency this past winter, his replacement, Jose Siri, also homered. Luke Raley also hit his ninth of the season, giving the Rays a major-league leading 94 home runs in 2023.
The Rays (35-14) improved to 22-4 at home to start the season. They also used the win to put a little more distance between them and the surprising Orioles, who were off Monday. The Rays now hold a three-game lead in the American League East.
It all began with Arozarena on Monday night.
He beat out a throw from Kiermaier in the second inning for a replay-overturned double. He then scored with two outs in the second when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. bobbled a flip to first.
The Rays kept it going.
Christian Bethancourt reached on Guerror’s bobble and kept the inning alive to bring Siri to the plate. Siri, whom the Rays acquired last season as Kiermaier’s replacement when he was injured, hit his seventh home run of the year.
Yandy Diaz led off the third with a walk and advanced on Guerrero’s second catching error of the game, and scored on Arozarena’s single for a 4-0 lead.
Arozarena’s leadoff homer in the sixth — a 391-foot blast — to right field, was his 11th of the season. He is tied with Diaz and Josh Lowe for the team lead in home runs. The Rays lead the majors with 93 homers this season.
Trevor Kelley gave the Rays two scoreless innings as the opener, and Josh Fleming allowed two runs on five hits and two walks in six innings of work as the bulk pitcher. Zack Littell gave up a home run to Daulton Varsho that reached the tank in center field with one out in the ninth, then brought the tying run to the plate with back-to-back singles, forcing the Rays to rush in Pete Fairbanks.
The right-handed closer got Danny Jansen to fly out, but pinch-hitter Brandon Belt lined an RBI-single, bringing slugger George Springer to the plate. Fairbanks got ahead 2-1, but walked him to load the bases.
Fairbanks then coaxed a harmless ground ball out of Lakewood High alumnus Bo Bichette — the majors’ hits leader with 66 — for a force-out to end the game.
