Tampa Bay Rays vs Minnesota Twins Match Player Stats On Jun 27, 2019

Willy Adames and Ji-Man Choi had RBI singles, and Yandy Diaz drove in what proved to be the winning run with a sacrifice fly to highlight a three-run 18th inning and lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis.

It was the longest game by innings in Target Field history and came just nine days after Minnesota and the Boston Red Sox set the previous mark, a 4-3 victory by the Twins that went 17 innings.

Ryan Yarbrough (7-3), the ninth Tampa Bay pitcher, picked up the win, allowing no runs on two hits while striking out five over three innings. Rays pitchers combined to strike out 22 batters in the contest, a franchise record.

Luis Arraez went 3-for-7 with an RBI, and Jorge Polanco had two hits for Minnesota, which entered with a five-game winning streak against Tampa Bay.

Ryne Harper (3-1), the 10th pitcher for Minnesota and pitching for the third straight day, suffered the loss, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk while also hitting a batter in one inning of relief.

Tampa Bay's first three batters reached base to open the 18th as Brandon Lowe walked, Travis d'Arnaud was hit by a pitch and Tommy Pham reached base on an infield single to load the bases. One out later, Diaz drove in Lowe with a sacrifice fly to left. Adames and Choi then followed with RBI singles.

Minnesota jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Rays' opener Ryne Stanek. Polanco and Nelson Cruz had back-to-back one-out singles, and Polanco scored on a groundout by Mitch Garver. Arraez followed with a single to right to drive in Cruz, who scored from second when right fielder Guillermo Heredia's throw skidded past catcher Mike Zunino for an error.

Tampa Bay tied it in the second. Adames led off with a walk, advanced to second one out later on a groundout by Kevin Kiermaier and then scored on a double by Michael Brosseau. Heredia drove in Brosseau with a single over the first-base bag.

The Rays loaded the bases with no outs in the 10th against reliever Blake Parker on a walk to Choi and back-to-back singles by Austin Meadows and Joey Wendle. But Parker worked out of the jam by getting Lowe to pop out, striking out d'Arnaud and then getting Pham to ground out to third baseman Miguel Sano, who made a highlight-reel diving stop in the hole on the play.

The 19 pitchers threw a combined 501 pitches in a game that had its start delayed by 57 minutes by rain.

--Field Level Media