Tampa Bay Rays vs Texas Rangers Box Score on May 31, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Jun 1, 2017

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Logan Morrison and Derek Norris each hit 10th-inning homers as the Tampa Bay Rays rallied for a 7-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, a night in which they were one out from defeat.

The Rays, who hit four homers, forced extra innings when Kevin Kiermaier homered off Texas closer Matt Bush with two outs in the ninth inning to tie the game at 4.

Morrison led off the 10th with a homer off Sam Dyson (1-6) and then Norris added a two-run blast to left with two outs to push the lead to 7-4.

The homers made a winner out of Austin Pruitt (4-1), who was called up from Triple-A Durham earlier in the day. Alex Colome worked around a one-out RBI single from Adrian Beltre in the 10th for his 15th save.

Tampa Bay led 3-1 early, but the Rangers tied the game in the fifth on a fielder's choice grounder and then took a 4-3 lead in the seventh as Elvis Andrus put Texas up with a double to left-center off Rays ace Chris Archer.

The Rays got Archer off the hook in the ninth though as Kiermaier handed Bush his first blown save since he took over the role from Dyson.

Archer pitched seven innings, allowing four runs and striking out seven. The strikeouts allowed him to set the franchise mark for strikeouts in a month as he totaled 57 in May, breaking the old record of 54 set by David Price in June 2014.

Texas right-hander Austin Bibens-Dirkx allowed three runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings in his first major league start.

The Rays jumped out to a 3-1 lead against Bibens-Dirkx. Steven Souza Jr. hit a two-run homer in the second to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead and Evan Longoria added an RBI single an inning later to push the advantage to 3-1.

Texas came back to tie the game with single runs in the fourth and fifth. Beltre scored on a double play in the fourth and an Andrus fielder's choice scored Mike Napoli in the fifth.

Longoria and Morrison each had two hits and an RBI for Tampa. Andrus went 3-for-4 for Texas, which had nine hits.

NOTES: Texas 3B Adrian Beltre moved into 18th on the all-time doubles list with a hit in the fourth. He has 593. ... The Rays made three moves before the game, bringing up RHP Austin Pruitt and RHP Ryan Garton from Triple-A Durham and also adding OF Mallex Smith from Durham. Tampa Bay has made 12 roster moves in three days.