Jeffrey Springs pitched a season-high six innings, Logan Driscoll drove in a run in his major league debut, and the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Minnesota Twins 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Springs (2-2) gave up one run and four hits in his seventh start since coming back from elbow surgery. The left-hander struck out four and walked two.
“I felt like the stuff was a little bit better today than it has been in the past, as far as coming out of hand,” Springs said. “Now I’m just trying to carry that over to the next one and fine-tune the command a little bit better.”
Edwin Uceta struck out two batters in a row after allowing two singles to start the ninth inning. He was replaced by Garrett Cleavinger, who got his fifth save in six attempts by retiring pinch-hitter Christian Vázquez on a grounder to shortstop.
Driscoll gave the Rays a 2-1 lead with his hit during a two-run fourth inning against David Festa (2-5). It came during his second at-bat.
“That was very special,” Driscoll said. “I wasn’t able to really cherish it in the moment, but looking back on it I’m really grateful for it.”
Carlos Santana homered for the Twins, who are in second place for the AL wild card.
The Rays started the game seven games behind Kansas City for the final AL wild card spot and would need to pass Seattle, Detroit, and Boston as well.
The last seven games between these teams have all been decided by one run.
The announced attendance was a season-low 10,531 for a Rays home game. Tampa Bay has the third-lowest attendance average in the majors at 16,834, with only Miami and Oakland drawing fewer fans.
