ST. PETERSBURG – Taylor Walls broke open the game with a bases-loaded triple, while Junior Caminero and Yandy Díaz added solo home runs in the Rays’ 6-3 triumph against the Marlins on Sunday at Tropicana Field.
The Rays (30-15) earned their seventh straight series win and moved to 16-5 at home this season.
Right-hander Drew Rasmussen (4-1) got the victory by allowing two runs over 5 1/3 innings.
In the fourth inning, with the Rays trailing 2-1, the Marlins had a mound conference with right-hander Eury Pérez as Walls, the ninth-place batter, came up with two outs and the bases loaded. On Pérez’s first offering, Walls slammed a triple to the right-center-field gap, and the Rays took a 4-2 lead they wouldn’t lose.
Walls, a .196 career hitter, has a .387 batting average with the bases loaded, including a 1.100 OPS and 40 RBIs in 31 at-bats.
Caminero provided a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a Statcast-projected 372-foot laser-shot homer to left.
In the fifth, Diaz launched a Statcast-projected 426-foot homer to center. Caminero drew a two-out bases-loaded walk off reliever Tyler Phillips in the sixth, making it 6-2.
The Marlins mounted an eighth-inning rally and had the tying runs on base. But left-handed reliever Ian Seymour got pinch-hitter Heriberto Hernández, who hit a Statcast-projected 439-foot pinch-hit homer in Saturday’s game, on a bases-loaded screaming liner to Walls at shortstop.