Rays 8, Twins 6: Carlos Gomez walks off the Twins

Phil Hughes is finally back; he wasn’t awful but he wasn’t very good either. In the first inning, he threw a lot of pitches and surrendered a 2-run homer to C.J. Cron. Hughes would eventually work out of that inning after a mound visit settled him down somewhat.

In the 2nd inning Eduardo Escobar hit a solo home run to right to make the score 2-1. In the third, Eddie Rosario singled to score Brian Dozier from 2nd to tie the game.

Hughes worked 1-2-3 innings in the 2nd and 3rd, but opened the 4th with back to back singles. After a groundout, Hughes’ day was done. Ryan Pressly came in and struck out 2 to end the threat. The final line score for Hughes: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.

In the 6th, Max Kepler gave the Twins the lead with an RBI double, scoring Logan Morrison. The double came off of the lefty Ryan Yarbrough, an encouraging sight for Kepler, who homered off of him in the first game of this series.

In the bottom of the 6th, Taylor Rogers gave up a double to Daniel Robertson and then Joey Wendle singled to drive him in. Jesus Sucre followed with a single of his own, and then Rogers struck out Mallex Smith. Alan Busenitz came in to face Adeiny Hechavarria, who promptly crushed a 3-run homer off of him to give the Rays a 6-3 lead.

In the 7th, Miguel Sano came off the bench and picked up an RBI single to cut the Rays lead to 6-4. The Twins closed the gap in the 8th, after a bases-loaded single by Dozier scored 2 to make it 6-6.

Addison Reed pitched a scoreless 8th, but in the 9th he gave up a 2-run walk off homer to Carlos Gomez. Former Twins center fielders, man, they killed us this series.

That’s a series sweep for the Rays, who move to 8-13, the Twins fall back to .500 at 8-8. From here we go north to New York to face the Yankees for a 4-game series.

Studs:

Joe Mauer: 1-2, 3 BB

Brian Dozier: 2-5, 2 RBI

Ryan Pressly: 1.2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 4 K

Duds:

Phil Hughes: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K.

Addison Reed, Taylor Rogers, Alan Busenitz: 2.2 IP, 6 R, 6 ER

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