PHOENIX — The Rays looked like they were going down to another defeat Wednesday night, and rather quietly at that.
Shut out into the ninth inning and down by two, they instead rallied impressively for a 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks.
An offense that, except for Yandy Diaz, was anemic for the first eight innings delivered three runs off reliever Scott McGough.
Diaz, who to that point had their only two hits, led off the ninth with a single. Wander Franco reached on an infield single on a ball McGough couldn’t corral. Luke Raley followed with a single that scored Diaz. After Randy Arozarena struck out, Isaac Paredes was just foul on a potential homer but lined sharply into the second out.
Then Josh Lowe came through with the night’s biggest hit, a double to left-centerfield that scored Franco and Raley.
Pete Fairbanks, after allowing a one-out walk, closed it out.
The win improved the Rays to 55-28 and allowed them to regain the majors’ best record, which the Braves (54-29) had briefly seized with a win earlier in the day. The Rays also halted some of talk about a slump as they had lost six of their previous nine games and eight of 14.
The night certainly didn’t start out well as the Rays were held to two hits over the first seven innings by Arizona starter Zach Davies, who came in with a 1-7, 7.82 record and had allowed 21 runs (18 earned) and 21 hits (for a .396 average) over his previous three starts.
A lack of offense has been an issue for a while now for the Rays.
Manager Kevin Cash, and several players, said before the game that they saw it as part of the normal ups and downs of a long season, and it was more noticeable because of how hot they were for much of the first half.
Cash did acknowledge that some the players’ at-bats look different.
“There’s guys (where) it kind of ebbs and flows,” he said. “For two months of the season, we had seven hitters on fire. Most of the time you’re going to have two or three guys going and two or three guys a little bit quiet.
“So we’ve maybe come back to earth a little bit. But (I have) full confidence these guys will get it going. We’ve got a very good offensive team. We’ve got a very good team in general. It’s just not coming easy right now.”
Rays starter Zach Eflin had said he didn’t much like pitching at Chase Field, which he said is not as bright as Tropicana Field. But he did relatively well, allowing the National League West-leading Diamondbacks just the two runs over seven innings.
He gave up one in the third inning, when he got two quick outs then allowed three consecutive singles — to No. 9 hitter Alek Thomas, Jake McCarthy and Ketel Marte.
Then another the next inning, allowing a leadoff double to Christian Walker, then a two-out single to Carson Kelly.
Rays infielder Taylor Walls said before the game that they are confident their struggles won’t last.
“I think it’s just the course of 162,” he said. “The pace we started at, everybody knew that that was unattainable. But the good thing is that everybody in here knows how to respond to that. We know that it’s kind of (time to) weather the storm.
“Fortunate enough for us, the storm is .500 almost. So if we can weather the storm that we’re in, get back to playing good ball, everybody gets to making good at-bats, the same things we’ve been doing all season. I just think it’s probably a little bit of a hiccup, a rough stretch for us. ...
“But I think that everybody in this locker room is going to do what they can to compete, go out there and win ballgames, and we’ll be winning more than we lose.”
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