BOSTON — Jeffrey Springs had been going through a lot over the past week, with his 5-month-old son, Stetson, hospitalized in St. Petersburg, Fla., for undisclosed reasons.
He felt comfortable enough with the situation to rejoin the Rays on Tuesday after being away from the team for a week and worked the first four innings of their 8-4, bounce-back win over the Red Sox.
After being shut out and held to two hits Monday, the Rays came out swinging Tuesday, looking more like the team that seemed to break out of an extended offensive slump last weekend in Toronto.
Facing Sox starter Nick Pivetta, the Rays scored three in the first, four in the sixth and another in the seventh to improve to 44-37 as they reached the halfway point of their season.
Kevin Kiermaier drove in a season-high four runs and Yandy Diaz had three hits to lead the attack.
Springs, who earlier in the day posted a screen shot of a FaceTime call with Stetson (and his wife Bailey) on Instagram, left with the score tied 3-3 after four innings.
Ryan Thompson took over, created a mess in allowing a single and a double to start the fifth, then got arguably the three biggest outs, retiring Xander Bogaerts, Christian Vazquez and Trevor Story.
The Rays loaded the bases to start the game, with Diaz doubling, Harold Ramirez singling and Wander Franco drawing a walk. Kiermaier delivered the big one-out hit, lashing a double off the left-center-field wall to send all three home, Franco racing around from first to score standing up.
They had a chance for more after Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch, but Kiermaier broke toward third on Taylor Walls’ soft liner and was doubled off.
The Red Sox answered back against Springs, with a two-out double and a home run by Xander Bogaerts. And they got even when Trevor Story led off the second with another home run.
The Rays made another out on the bases in the third — increasing their majors-most total, which doesn’t include caught stealings, pickoffs or force plays, to 40 — when Franco got doubled off first on a check-swing blooper by Isaac Paredes.
In the fifth there was a brief exchange of words and a tense moment. A couple players from each team took a few steps out of the dugout when Diaz didn’t like an up-and-in pitch and/or the accompanying commentary from Pivetta, which included at least one very audible bad word, but nothing further.
The Rays got going again in the sixth, scoring four and chasing Pivetta. Franco walked, went to third on Paredes’ single and scored on Kiermaier’s fielder’s choice grounder. Arozarena doubled to send Kiermaier to third, and he scored on Walls’ sacrifice fly.
Arozarena, whose aggressiveness on the bases has cost the Rays at times, hustled his way to a run by breaking hard from second on Rene Pinto’s two-out grounder to short and sliding under the tag after Pinto was called safe and first baseman Bobby Dalbec threw home. After a Josh Lowe walk, Diaz singled in Pinto to make it 7-3.
The Rays got one more in the seventh when Franco walked, stole second and scored on Paredes’ single.
