Rays 3, Royals 2: Harold Ramirez leads Rays to series win

The Rays and Royals finished off their four game set and season series Sunday afternoon at the Trop with Ryan Yarbrough facing off against veteran Zack Greinke. The Rays entered the day with a 64-55 record while the 4th place Royals entered with a record of 49-73.

On the mound, Yarbs continued to pitch rather effectively tossing 4.1 innings and allowing just two unearned runs. He struck out five, walked one, and allowed three hits. After throwing four shutout frames to start the game, Yarbrough found himself in a bit of trouble in the top of the fifth. After a one out walk and a subsequent throwing error by Brandon Lowe, Yarbrough surrendered a run scoring single to MJ Melendez. Shawn Armstrong would take over for the southpaw and allow the Royals second run to cross the plate via a sacrifice fly.

Armstrong would throw 1.1 innings surrendering just the one run. Poche would follow suit and also throw 1.1 innings. He kept the Rays 3-2 lead in place and struck out three.

Raley was brought on for the 8th inning to maintain the 3-2 lead. After a leadoff walk to Salvador Perez, Raley got three quick outs and sent the Rays the the bottom of the 8th with the lead.

Pete Fairbanks entered the 9th looking for his second save in as many days and closed the door without much drama.

At the plate, the Rays got going early, scoring a run in the first and second innings off of Greinke.

With two outs in the first, Randy Arozarena singled and stole second base setting up Harold Ramirez with an RBI opportunity.

Hittin Harold came through with an RBI single to start the scoring. It was his first of three hits on the afternoon.

In the bottom of the second inning, Christian Bethancourt got a hold of one and launched it into the seats in left-center field to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.

Then, in the 5th inning with the game tied 2-2, Hittin Harold came through again with another RBI knock. This time, the single up the middle scored Brandon Lowe and gave the Rays a 3-2 lead.

The lead would hold for the final four frames and the Rays would go on to win their third consecutive series. The win moved them back to 10 games over .500. With the Angels coming to town, the Rays have an excellent chance to build on their recent successes. After going 3-8 in their first 11 games following the break, they have rebounded to go 11-6 over their last 17 games.

Jeffrey Springs will take the mound and look to keep things rolling for the Rays at 7:10 pm tomorrow at the Trop.