Seemingly Never-Ending Game Finally Does; Pirates Fall to Rays in 13

Bottom 8th, 5-5: On a 3-2 pitch from Bryan Baker with two outs, Nick Yorke singled home Brandon Lowe to draw even with the Rays (12-8).

Top 11th, 6-5 TB: Taylor Walls came all the way around to score from first base on a throwing error from Yohan Ramírez. Walls broke for second, Ramírez turned and threw to first but was charged with an error after the ball ended up all the way down the line.

Bottom 11th, 6-6: Nick Yorke advanced to third on a Spencer Horwitz groundout to first base and hustled home on Konnor Griffin’s grounder to second base, beating a throw home to tie the game.

Top 13th, 8-6 TB: Cedric Mullins led off the 13th inning with a two-run home run off Yohan Ramírez.

Bottom 13th, 8-7 TB: Konnor Griffin’s two-out single brought the Pirates within a run but they were unable to push across the tying run.

Key Moments

The Pirates had their chances in extras — as did the Rays — but Tampa Bay finally came through on Cedric Mullins’ two-run homer in the 13th.

Pittsburgh had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the 10th but Rays reliever Kevin Kelly struck out Marcell Ozuna and Nick Yorke to push the game to the 11th.

Yoendrys Gómez, who recorded his first save of the season, struck out Joey Bart with two in scoring position to end the game.

Player of the Game

Ryan O’Hearn finished 2 for 3 with a two-run home run, two runs and a walk.

Stat to Know

With a double off Ian Seymour in the fifth inning, Oneil Cruz matched last season’s hit total against southpaws 21 games into this year. He had 11 hits in 108 at-bats against lefties last season and is now 11 for 25 against them this year.

Notable Performances

• Paul Skenes: 4.0 innings, three hits, no runs, no walks, five strikeouts, 64 pitches/43 strikes
• Yohan Ramírez (2-1): 3.0 innings, four hits, three runs (one earned), two walks, one strikeout, 44 pitches/27 strikes.
• Ryan O’Hearn: 2 for 3, one home run, two RBI, two runs, one walk
• Marcell Ozuna: 2 for 6, one home run, two RBI, one run

Noteworthy

• Marcell Ozuna finished extended his hitting streak to six games.
• Paul Skenes (yes, he did pitch in this game) now has a 0.50 ERA in three career starts against the Rays (1er/18ip).
• The game was delayed for 2 hours and 27 minutes in the bottom of the fourth inning due to rain. The start of the game was pushed up from 4:05 p.m. ET to 3:30 p.m. ET.

Up Next

RHP Mitch Keller (1-1, 2.86 ERA) will start for the Pirates in the series finale on Sunday afternoon. He’ll be opposed by Rays LHP Shane McClanahan (1-1, 3.95 ERA). First pitch: 1:35 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh/93.7 The Fan

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