Rays take early lead, wait out 2.5-hour delay to beat Royals

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — The Rays looked like they won the race against the rain and the game against the Royals early Tuesday evening.

With a one-run lead and five innings completed to make the game official just before the skies opened, the Rays would have had an abbreviated victory had the umpires not decided to wait out the wave of storms. Instead, after a delay of two hours and 32 minutes, the teams resumed play at midnight.

And the Rays finished the job, capping the long, wet night with a 5-1 victory that ended a little more than an hour later, and roughly five after they started playing.

The win was the Rays’ sixth in their last eight games and 10th in 14, improving them to 43-42, their first time above .500 since going into play May 21 at 25-24.

With neither Rays starter Zack Littell nor Kansas City’s Brady Singer returning after the extended delay, both teams shuttled in relievers for the final four innings.

The Rays added a run in the sixth when Josh Lowe singled with one out off John Schreiber, and Richie Palacios laced a double into the rightfield corner with two. The Royals got one when Bobby Witt homered off Kevin Kelly in the home sixth.

Then the Rays added two more in the seventh off Chris Stratton. Taylor Walls walked with one out, stole second and went to third on a ground out. Brandon Lowe drew a four-pitch walk, then Isaac Paredes bounced a ball just inside the third-base line to score both, making in 4-1. Brandon Lowe homered in the ninth, off former teammate Nick Anderson, to make it 5-1.

The Rays had taken the initial lead when Palacios raced home on a second-inning wild pitch by Singer.

Palacios reached on a one-out infield single, went to third on a double by Jose Siri and, after Ben Rortvedt struck out, scored when Singer threw a 2-2 pitch (the eighth of what became a 10-pitch at-bat) by Taylor Walls and catcher Salvador Perez.

Littell gave the Rays a solid and efficient five innings, allowing four hits and no walks, striking out four, throwing 49 of 68 pitches for strikes.

He got his biggest outs in the fifth, racing the rain, as a delay before the inning was completed would have led to a suspended game.

After getting two quick outs, Littell allowed singles to MJ Melendez and CJ Alexander (his first big-league hit). He got ahead of Isbel 0-2, threw two balls to even the count, then got him to swing at a splitter in the dirt that Rortvedt blocked.

Walls made a key play at second base when Littell picked off Melendez to end the second inning, with the call overturned on replay. Walls positioned himself — specifically his size 11 1/2 left foot — in a way that kept Melendez from getting back to the base.

While recent rule changes prohibit infielders from blocking the base, it appeared from replays that Walls’ foot was on top of the base, and when Melendez dove back he put his hand on Walls’ foot. He initially was called safe, but the Rays challenged the call and it was overturned.

_______