Tampa Bay’s power surged as Junior Caminero homered and the Rays secured their 30th win, capitalizing on Eury Perez’s command struggles to clinch the cross-state rivalry series.
The Miami Marlins dropped the Citrus Series finale with a 6-3 loss against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday in St. Petersburg.
The Rays became the first team in the American League to reach 30 wins this season. Rays starter Drew Rasmussen went 5.1 innings allowing two runs on seven hits and two strikeouts for his fourth win of the season.
Marlins right-handed pitcher Eury Perez was charged with five runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts. It was his sixth loss of the season and his ERA rose to 5.33 of the season. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough chalked it up to “inconsistency with the strike throwing” during his postgame press conference.
“He worked hard for 15 outs today,” McCullough said. “The pitch count really got driven up and four walks. So I think it’s just the inability to fill up the zone.”
Junior Caminero started the scoring for Tampa Bay early with a solo home run in the first inning. It was his 12th home run of the season.
The Marlins struck back in the third inning to take a 2-1 lead. Xavier Edwards singled on a line drive to centerfield to score a run. Edwards scored on a single by Otto Lopez. Edwards and Lopez each collected two hits and remain among the league leaders in that statistical category.
Taylor Walls hit a bases-clearing triple on a fly ball to centerfield to put the Rays back on top 4-2 in the fourth inning.
Yandy Díaz hit his seventh home run of the season, a solo shot to center field to extend the Rays' lead to 5-2 in the fifth inning.
The Rays scored their sixth run of the game after Junior Caminero drew a walk with the bases loaded in the sixth inning.
Kyle Stowers hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to provide some fight for the Marlins, but it wasn’t enough.
“We had some threats there late,” McCullough said. “We just didn’t get a couple to fall in when we had some opportunities late.”
Jakob Marsee went 2-for-3 to continue a stretch where he is slashing .417/.517.667 through his last seven games.
After a 2-4 road trip, the Marlins return home to take on the Atlanta Braves, who lead the National League East. Max Meyer (3-0, 3.21 ERA) will take the mound against Atlanta right-hander JR Richie (1-0, 3.32 ERA) on Monday.
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