KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Luke Raley had a go-ahead single in the eighth inning as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 Saturday night to complete a doubleheader sweep.
Jose Siri hit a pair of solo homers as the Rays won the first game 6-1 to open their post-midseason-break slate. AL East-leading Tampa Bay has won three in a row after a season-high 7-game losing streak and at 60-35 became the first AL team to 60 wins.
Kansas City has lost eight of nine, dropping to 26-67 and falling 41 games under .500 for the first time since under 2019 at 59-103.. The Royals were swept in a doubleheader for the first time since May 25, 2019, against the New York Yankees after going 2-0-7 in their previous nine twinbills.
Dairon Blanco’s RBI grounder in the fifth put the Royals ahead 2-1 in the nightcap. Josh Lowe tied the score with a run-scoring triple in the seventh and Raley singled in the eighth against Carlos Hernández (0-5).
Harold Ramírez added a sacrifice fly in the ninth against Dylan Coleman.
Colin Poche (7-2) threw a 1-2-3 seventh. Pete Fairbanks, pitching before about 50 family and friends, worked around Salvador Perez’s leadoff single in the ninth for his 10th save in 11 chances.
Perez had 4 hits in the opener, one shy of his career high. His fifth-inning double made him the sixth Kansas City player with 500 extra-base hits.
Cole Ragans, a 25-year-old left-hander, made his Royals debut in the night game and allowed 1 run and 4 hits in five innings.
A day after the series opener was rained out, Tyler Glasnow (3-3) gave up 1 run and 6 hits over 6 innings and struck out 6 in the day game. Glasnow had been 0-3 in four starts since a June 14 win at Oakland.
“I felt good all game,” Glasnow said. “I kind of felt off to start, but as the innings went on I got a rhythm. It was a battle today and ended up being a good game.”
Siri homered in the third off Alec Marsh (0-3) and the ninth off Nick Wittgren for his seventh career multihomer game. Siri has 18 home runs this season.
“I know I’ve been striking out a lot, but everyone knows that. It felt good to connect on those two,” Siri said.
Francisco Mejía gave the Rays a 2-0 lead in the fifth when he homered off Marsh, who allowed 2 runs and 5 hits in six innings with 11 strikeouts and 1 walk. The strikeouts were a high for a Royals pitcher in his first three big-league starts.
“Getting strikeouts the last two games were difficult for me,” Marsh said. “I thought the attack mode was good all game. I think mindset wise I knew to keep attacking and knowing I needed to make a pitch with two strikes.”
Kansas City’s Collin Snider opened the eighth with 13 consecutive balls. Raley followed with a two-run single and Josh Lowe hit a sacrifice fly.
Bobby Witt Jr. hit a 424-foot homer in the fifth.
RHP and Hagerty High alum Zach Eflin (10-4, 3.25) is scheduled to start Sunday’s series finale for the Rays against RHP and Eustis High graduate Brady Singer (5-8, 5.80) for the Royals.
