ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Brandon Lowe and Austin Meadows homered and the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays beat the last-place Boston Red Sox 5-4 on Saturday night.
Lowe hit a solo shot, his 12th of the season, off Marcus Walden (0-2) in the seventh for a 5-4 lead.
“Hitting a go-ahead homer is awesome,” Lowe said.
Tyler Glasnow (3-1) allowed four runs and six hits over seven innings for the Rays, who are a combined 15-4 against the Boston and the New York Yankees.
Diego Castillo worked the ninth to get his fourth save.
Boston, which was eliminated from the AL East title race, got homers from Michael Chavis and Christian Arroyo. The Red Sox stole six bases with Glasnow pitching.
The Red Sox are 2-17 against the Rays, Yankees and Atlanta, and are 14-14 against everyone else.
Arroyo tied it at 4 on his two-run drive in the seventh off Glasnow. The Rays starter had an issue with bleeding on the back of his right thumb that was looked at during the fifth.
“If I don't cut my nails for a while, when I throw my curveball and my heater, it snags the back of my skin,” Glasnow said. “I called him (the trainer) out there to put like surgical glue on it and it helps, but apparently MLB has a rule that you can't put anything on a pitcher's (throwing) hand or something.”
“So, I was just throwing bloody baseballs during COVID," Glasnow added. “That should probably be a change. I went into the (dugout) tunnel after (the inning) and put like surgical glue on it and it was good. It's fine now, it's cool.”
Manuel Margot had a two-run double off Chris Mazza during a three-run fourth that put the Rays up 4-2. Ji-man Choi strained his left hamstring while scoring on Nate Lowe’s single earlier in the inning.
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said Choi, who will have an MRI on Sunday, is probably going to miss some time.
Margot had two hits in three at-bats and is 14 for 22 in six games against Boston this season.
Meadows hit a leadoff homer off Nathan Eovaldi in the first.
Eovaldi, who had been out since Aug. 21 due to a right calf strain, gave up one run, three hits and struck out four in three innings.
“I felt a grab and thought it would only be a day or two, turned out to be 2-3 weeks,” Eovaldi said.
Xander Bogaerts opened the fourth by walking on a 10-pitch at-bat, stealing second and third, and then scoring to give Boston a 2-1 lead on Kevin Plawecki’s single.
Chavis tied it at 1 on his third-inning drive.
Boston designated hitter J.D. Martinez was 0 for 4 and is hitless in 21 at-bats.
COOPERSTOWN BOUND
The official lineup card from Friday night’s game in which the Rays became the first team since at least 1900 to start nine left-handed batters, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, is being sent to the baseball Hall of Fame.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cash plans to keep CF Kevin Kiermaier (general body soreness) out of the lineup for a couple days. ... SS Willy Adames talked Friday about using clear non-prescription glasses while batting at home but opted not to. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a walk.
UP NEXT
Red Sox LHP Martín Pérez (2-4) will face Tampa Bay RHP Charlie Morton (1-2) in the series finale on Sunday.
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