CLEVELAND (AP) — Brandon Lowe homered, Tampa Bay’s bullpen held Cleveland to one hit over seven innings and the Rays snapped a three-game losing streak on a rugged trip with a 5-2 win over the AL Central-leading Guardians on Thursday night.
Lowe connected for his 18th homer in the first inning off Gavin Williams (3-9).
The Rays were swept earlier this week in a three-game series at NL East-leading Philadelphia. They improved to 3-4 on the 10-game trip, which started in AL East-leading Baltimore and finishes Sunday in Cleveland.
Tampa Bay will be the first MLB team to face three division leaders on the same trip in September or later.
Cole Sulser (1-0) took over for Rays starter Ryan Pepiot in the third and pitched three hitless innings. Richard Lovelady worked the ninth for his second save.
The Guardians missed a chance to increase their division lead over idle second-place Kansas City.
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash was back in the dugout from serving a one-game suspension after Rays pitcher Edwin Uceta intentionally threw at Philadelphia’s Nick Castellanos. Uceta missed his second game.
The Rays scored twice in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead on Jonathan Aranda’s sacrifice fly Jonny DeLuca’s two-out RBI single.
The Rays tacked on one run in the eighth José Caballero’s RBI single.
Cleveland’s defense kept it a 4-2 game as first baseman Josh Naylor nabbed a smash down the line to save a run and left fielder Steven Kwan threw out Josh Lowe at the plate trying to score on a sacrifice fly.
Tampa Bay made it 5-2 in the ninth on Logan Driscoll’s sac fly.
Lane Thomas, who struggled in his first month after coming to Cleveland in a trade, drove in the Guardians’ first run with a two-out double in the first.
Thomas has been the AL’s hottest hitter in September, and the double pushed his average to .421 this month and bumped his overall average to .248 — a 17-point jump in 11 games.
NEW MAN(AGER)
Cash couldn’t keep a straight face when asked what it was like to look over at Cleveland’s dugout and not see former manager Terry Francona.
“Awesome,” Cash said, breaking into laughter when talking about his close friend, who retired following last season. “I miss him. The game misses him. He’s healthy and doing well.”
Cash played for Francona in Boston and was his bullpen coach with Cleveland.
He’s been impressed with the job first-year manager Stephen Vogt has done in keeping the Guardians atop their division despite a slew of injuries to his pitching staff.
“They’ve plugged holes really, really well,” Cash said. “They’re right up there for the best record in the American League. They’re doing a lot of things right and that’s a credit to him and his staff.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Guardians: RHP Ben Lively (right thigh bruise) is moving better and less sore after being struck with a hard comebacker in Chicago on Tuesday. Lively is scheduled to throw a bullpen Friday and is on track to start Sunday’s series finale.
UP NEXT
Guardians RHP Tanner Bibee (11-7, 3.56 ERA) starts Friday against Zach Littell (6-9, 3.89), who is 3-0 with a 2.01 ERA in 10 career appearances against Cleveland.
