José Caballero hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning off Joe Kelly, breaking the tie after Tampa Bay lost a 4-0 lead early in the game. The Rays ended up beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-8 on Saturday night.
“That helped us a lot,” said his teammate Junior Caminero. “I probably screamed out there more than he did.”
Jonny DeLuca started the 10th inning as the designated runner on second base, moved to third on Josh Lowe’s groundout, and scored when Caballero hit a homer to left-center off Kelly (1-1).
“There are some times that he comes in and he’s lights out and other times he labors,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s certainly been inconsistent.”
Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips gave up the tying homer to Caminero at the start of the ninth inning but then struck out the next three batters.
Shohei Ohtani hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning after he had become the fastest player in major league history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases the night before.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the 10th against Garrett Cleavinger and hit a high fly ball to right field that was caught.
The designated runner Miguel Rojas moved to third and scored on Mookie Betts’ sacrifice fly to center field, leaving the Dodgers behind 9-8. Freddie Freeman then grounded out to second to end the game.
“Guys are taking good at-bats. There’s fight,” Roberts said. “Tonight we just didn’t pitch well. We had a chance to win and we just couldn’t put them away.”
Manuel Rodriguez (3-3) got the win with one inning of relief. Cleavinger picked up his fourth save.
“Our offense did a great job putting up two (runs) which made it much easier,” Cleavinger said. “The guys really swung well against some good arms.”
Trailing 5-3, Max Muncy hit a double to start the fifth inning, advanced to third on Tommy Edman’s groundout, and scored on Rojas’ single. Ohtani then hit his homer, which was met with chants of “MVP! MVP!”
