Twins' ninth-inning rally falls short in loss to Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Minnesota Twins had a chance to move past Tampa Bay and out of last place in the American League, but they ran into the Rays at their best.
Evan Longoria, Bobby Wilson and Logan Forsythe all homered to back Chris Archer's six strong innings as the Rays beat the Twins 7-3 on Saturday night.
A win would have pulled Minnesota a half-game ahead of Tampa Bay 2 1/2 months after the Twins' dismal 11-34 start. But at 44-66, they still have the worst record in the AL, 1 1/2 games behind the Rays' 45-64.
Archer (6-15) won for the third time in his last 15 starts, giving up one run and three hits and striking out seven to regain the American League lead in strikeouts with 168.
"He's been trying to find ways to win games this year and tonight it seemed like he had it going," said Twins manager Paul Molitor. "No question Archer was the difference in the game."
Archer won for the first time in his last nine starts at home.
"I feel lately I've been pretty efficient, even when I'm not getting a lot of strikeouts," he said. "Tonight the sixth inning got away from me a little bit but I'm not even worried about it. Six was all the team needed tonight. I definitely wanted to go deeper but it's not all about me, it's about getting a team win."
Alex Colome got the final two outs for his 27th save after the Twins rallied for two runs in the ninth. The Rays clinched their first winning homestand of the season, improving to 6-3 with the finale on Sunday.
Longoria and Wilson homered off Minnesota starter Jose Berrios, who gave up four runs and six hits in five innings.
Berrios (2-2) said Archer's strong start added no additional pressure.
"I go out there and compete with my team," he said. "Tonight that didn't happen but I tried to do my best. . . . I made two or three mistakes tonight."
Longoria's 24th home run gave the Rays a 2-0 lead in the third. Wilson, re-acquired by the Rays off waivers from Texas on Thursday, homered in his second at bat and drove in another run with a single. Forsythe added his 11th home run in the seventh off reliever Trevor May.
Brian Dozier doubled in the sixth, extending his career-high hitting streak to 15 games.
It is the longest current streak in the AL and the longest by a Twin since Joe Mauer's 16-game streak two years ago.
The Twins, who have 29 home runs from Dozier and Max Kepler alone since June 19, went homerless on Saturday night. Molitor still doesn't consider them a home run-hitting team. "We have athletic players, too, guys that can run, guys that can spray the ball around, run the bases," he said. "You'll take the home runs, but I think overall, a consistent offense in terms of some of other things probably plays better over the long season."
Twins: 3B Trevor Plouffe, on the disabled list with a fractured left rib, homered in the seventh inning for Triple-A Rochester to break up a perfect game Saturday night. The Twins expect to activate Plouffe as early as Monday.
Rays: SS Matt Duffy (strained left Achilles' tendon) plans to make his Tampa Bay debut Friday night at the New York Yankees. Duffy, acquired from San Francisco on Monday, said running the bases in a rehab game Friday with Class A Charlotte "felt almost like nothing happened." . . . The Rays placed OF Desmond Jennings (bruised left knee) on the 15-day disabled day and reinstated OF Mikie Mahtook (fractured left hand) from the DL. . . . OF Oswaldo Arcia (strained right elbow) and 1B Logan Morrison (strained right forearm) could be ready for minor league games in the next week.
Twins: RHP Kyle Gibson (3-6) will pitch the series finale. He is 0-4 with an 8.85 ERA in four starts against the Rays.
Rays: RHP Matt Andriese (6-2) expects to be held to a pitch count around 80 in his second start since spending more than a month in the bullpen.
