OAKLAND, Calif. — Tuesday’s game featured a rough return to the rotation by Ryan Yarbrough, another stellar bullpen outing, a dramatic game-tying homer in the ninth inning by Mike Zunino and a very happy ending.
Yandy Diaz and Isaac Paredes led a five-run rally in the 10th, and Jason Adam worked around Sheldon Nouse’s RBI double and Sean Murphy’s run-scoring single to get the final three outs and give the Rays an inspiring 10-7 win.
The Rays (14-10) were down two runs and down to their last two outs when they rallied in the ninth against lefty reliever Kirby Snead.
Manuel Margot got them started with a single. With manager Kevin Cash using the righty Paredes to pinch-hit for Brandon Lowe to start the inning, he turned next to Zunino, who delivered a two-run homer to tie the game at 5. Taylor Walls followed with a single and got as far as third but was stranded there.
The Rays took the lead quickly in the 10th off Lou Trivino, as Diaz led off with a double to right-center to score Harold Ramirez, who started the inning as the runner on second under the extra-innings rule carried over from 2021.
An intentional walk of Wander Franco and a Randy Arozarena ground out put runners on second and third. Paredes, acquired from the Tigers and called up when Ji-Man Choi went on the injured list Sunday, bounced a ball over third to score two. Margot tripled in Paredes, and Zunino singled in Margot to make it 10-5.
The Rays welcomed Yarbrough back to the rotation with modest expectations, and he may not have met them, allowing five first-inning runs and lasting only 2 1/3 innings. That forced the bullpen to work overtime, and the group deserved bonus pay for an extraordinary outing.
Ryan Thompson, Jeffrey Springs, Matt Wisler, Andrew Kittredge and Adam teamed for 7-2/3 innings, allowing only a double and three singles.
Announced attendance was 2,815, a slight increase from Monday’s 2,488, the lowest in Oakland since 1980.
Yarbrough, who missed the first 3½ weeks due to left groin tightness, got off to a rough start, allowing the five runs in a miserable 31-pitch first inning that included three walks, including one with the bases loaded, and three hits, most notably a grand slam by Kevin Smith.
Yarbrough was expected to open the season in the Rays’ rotation but was delayed briefly by the groin issue, then placed on the injured list for an expected short stint that lasted nearly a month and included two brief rehab outings at Triple-A Durham.
Yarbrough got just one out in his rehab outing for Durham on April 23, throwing 27 pitches, then eight in his second, getting his workload up to 59 pitches. They didn’t get those on Tuesday, nor the 70-75 pitches they were expecting.
Yarbrough allowed two singles to start the first, then got a bad break with a good ending when Arozarena couldn’t hang on to a liner to left but threw out the lead runner at third.
After an infield pop-up, Yarbrough was a strike away from getting out of the inning when he missed just high on a 3-2 pitch to Stephen Piscotty. Instead, the walk loaded the bases and led to big problems.
Yarbrough walked Christian Bethancourt to force in one run, then allowed the grand slam to Smith that added four more to make it 5-1. It took a running and sliding catch by Brett Phillips on the right-field line for the third out to keep it a four-run deficit.
The Rays got their run in the first when Franco, who reached on a fielder’s choice that forced out Diaz after a leadoff infield single, raced around the bases and through third-base coach Rodney Linares’ stop sign to score on Brandon Lowe’s double to right-center.
They got to within 5-3 with a brief rally in the second. Kevin Kiermaier slapped a ball to right and hustled out of the box to stretch it to a double, then Phillips hit a two-run homer.
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