Rays strike 1st, beat Rangers again behind Brandon Lowe and Shane Baz

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Jun 4, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — Brandon Lowe homered and doubled in a run, and Shane Baz worked a solid five innings to lead the Rays to a 5-4 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday.

The Rays improved to 32-29, matching their season high of three games over .500. They won for the 11th time in their last 14 games and 16th in 24.

Baz had to battle to get through the fifth inning after allowing three runs but improved his record to 5-3 with a 4.96 ERA. Closer Pete Fairbanks allowed an unearned run in the ninth before finishing for his 11th save in 12 chances.

The Rays scored first, as they have nine times in their last 12 games. Brandon Lowe homered off Texas starter Kumar Rocker in the first, his 12th of the season and seventh in his past 18 games.

The Rays expanded their lead to 5-0 in the third, with nine batters coming to the plate during a four-run inning.

Back-to-back doubles by Josh Lowe and Brandon Lowe got them one run, consecutive singles by Yandy Diaz and Jonathan Aranda another.

The two runners moved up on a Junior Caminero ground out, and Jake Mangum’s slow roller to first got both home. Diaz scored from third when first baseman Jake Burger’s toss wasn’t in time to Rocker covering the bag. Then, with Rocker not paying attention, Aranda made a heads-up play and raced home.

Baz kept the Rangers scoreless through the first four innings, but they got to him for three runs in the fifth, ending his night.

They got two after Adolis Garcia singled with one out and Jonah Heim, a former Rays minor leaguer, drove a ball to the left-field wall that just escaped the leaping reach of Mangum for a two-run homer.

Baz got through the inning, and the Rays bullpen took it from there.

Fact of the day

Caminero on Tuesday became the first player in Rays history to hit a homer and steal home in a regular-season game. Randy Arozarena did so in Game 1 of the 2021 AL Division Series. The last major leaguer to do so before Caminero was Boston’s Jarren Duran on May 21, 2024, against the Rays at Tropicana Field.