CHICAGO — In clearing Wander Franco to return to the lineup after he sat out Monday with right quad tightness, the Rays asked him to not run too hard.
Franco came up with a good compromise, jogging around the bases after hitting a two-run homer that sparked his team to a 6-5 win over the Cubs on Tuesday night.
The win was welcome for the Rays, who got back to .500 at 6-6 after losing five of their previous six, and well-earned.
It was something of a team effort, as seven hitters either drove in or scored a run, and six pitchers combined to limit the Cubs, with Ryan Thompson creating, then escaping, a mess in the seventh as the Cubs had the tying and go-ahead runs on.
The Rays grabbed an early 4-0 lead.
Yandy Diaz did most of the work in the third inning, leading off with a double, going to third on a fly out and scoring on Manuel Margot’s infield out.
The Rays got three with a rally in the inning that had a lot of contributors. That included replay coordinator Randell Kanemaru, who made the decision to challenge the call of Randy Arozarena being out at first on the back end of a double play.
The call was reversed, and it paid off for the Rays when Franco blasted a 417-foot homer to left, his first of the season.
The Rays added one more, and ended the night for Cubs starter Justin Steele, as Harold Ramirez and Diaz walked, and Brandon Lowe singled.
But Josh Fleming, who took over for opener Matt Wisler, had a hard time in the fourth. A one-out single by Ian Happ and a double by Frank Schwindel got one run, and a two-out pinch-hit homer by Patrick Wisdom two more to cut the Rays’ lead to one run.
The Rays had a chance for more after Arozarena led off the fifth with a walk. Franco lashed a double into the left-center gap, but Arozarena, who looked back at the play after rounding third, was thrown out at home.
The Rays challenged that call, as well as if Cubs catcher Wilson Contreras didn’t provide a lane to the plate, but Arozarena was still out, their majors-most seventh runner thrown out on the bases in 12 games.
The Rays added two more runs in the seventh as Taylor Walls tripled, Arozarena doubled and, with one out, Ramirez singled.
Thompson took over with two outs in the seventh after Brooks Raley allowed a run by hitting Clint Frazier and allowing a triple to Nico Hoerner. Thompson made it worse, walking Seiya Suzuki, throwing a wild pitch that scored Hoerner, then walking Contreras. But Thompson got out it when Walls knocked down Happ’s ball in shallow right and threw to first.
