Rays have their own July 4 blast, beat Royals to move back over .500

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There were a series of big hits and key defensive plays in the Rays' 10-8 victory over the Royals on Thursday night.

The one that stood out most was catcher Ben Rortvedt throwing to second base to catch speedy Bobby Witt Jr. stealing to end a nightmarish sixth inning in which the Rays nearly gave away a 9-4 lead with a series of misplays.

There were several elements to the play that made it special. Reliever Jason Adam quickening his usually slow delivery by a tick or two and throwing a well-placed fastball. Rortvedt making a clean catch and coming up firing a strike. Shortstop Taylor Walls perfectly positioned to apply the tag.

And, most memorable, at least to the rest of the Rays, was Adam's reaction, leaping — well, jumping slightly — into the air and pumping his fist.

"Oh, no, I was hoping no one saw that," Adam said. "That was just genuine joy. I don't have a ton of caught stealings when I'm pitching historically, so that was like, 'Yes, he got him.' Bobby's a great ballplayer, great base stealer. So to get him there in that moment, that was huge."

Players who missed Adam's reaction live gathered to watch the replay on the dugout iPads. "That was a great reaction," Rortvedt said. "I watched it in slo-mo. That was pretty funny."

Worthy, Walls said, of a print to provide daily remembrances: "We need to frame that and put it in the clubhouse."

The Rays had a lot to be happy about, as they extended their stretch of good play and streak of series wins to five straight, their longest since last August. In doing so, they have won seven of their last 10 games, and 10 of 14. And they moved back above .500 at 44-43.

"We're playing the baseball we should be playing," Adam said. "We're playing clean. We're not beating ourselves. We're going out there making all the plays. Our defense is awesome. Our hitters are awesome. And our pitching, we're doing everything we can to put our team in a position to win."

The Rays did a good job building an early lead — scoring in each of the first three innings and the fifth, and extended the advantage to 9-4 in the sixth — and a bad job hanging on to it.

The Rays got to nine with a team effort, including home runs by Jonny DeLuca (his first since May 18) and Brandon Lowe, and a two-out, two-run single in the fifth by Rortvedt.

After going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and leaving 10 on in a 4-2 loss Wednesday, the Rays had their own July 4 blast, rapping 16 hits (and taking eight walks) and going 6-for-18 with runners on second or third.

"Just the amount of big hits that we got," manager Kevin Cash said. "We talked about maybe they didn't come easy (Wednesday). Not that they're ever easy, but we had a lot of big at-bats with some guys on base in some tough matchups. ... There was a bunch of guys that really contributed offensively."

Rortvedt's hit was one of the biggest.

"I don't see lefties very often so it's cool to come through there with people in scoring position off a lefty, so that's awesome, that builds some confidence in that realm," Rortvedt said. "But it's also a big swing that puts us ahead so, yeah, that was awesome."

But then they almost gave it all away in a sloppy home sixth, with second baseman Richie Palacios making two errors and Jose Siri overrunning a fly ball to left-centerfield leading to the Royals scoring three and threatening for more.

Palacios' first error, on a leadoff grounder by Michael Massey, and a single by ex-Ray Hunter Renfroe got the Royals within 9-5 and ended the night for starter Zach Eflin, who said his mechanics were off and he couldn't get in a groove. "It felt like a bloodbath honestly," he said.

Reliever Garrett Cleavinger allowed a double by Garrett Hampson on a fly to left-center that Siri over-ran, hit Freddy Fermin and got Maikel Garcia to fly out.

Cash then went to Adam, his usual later-inning setup man.

"I felt like it was (the key moment in the game)," Cash said. "We're just fortunate that we've got a bunch of relievers down there that are pretty selfless for the most part, willing to pitch in any role. They sense the way the game is going; it felt like it was going to be back and forth quite a bit. And J.A. is probably the right guy in that moment to come quiet it."

Adam got the ground ball for the double play they wanted. But with Fermin sliding in hard, Palacios' relay to first went wide, allowing Hampson to score to make it 9-7. A single by Witt put runners on the corners and the go-ahead run to the plate, and set up the key play.

Rortvedt and Adam both figured Witt, who has 22 steals, would be going.

"I didn't think too much about it," Rortvedt said. "Any baseball fan watching knows Bobby is going to take a shot there. I ended up getting a fastball that was in a good spot to put a good throw on (it) and I ended up doing that. So that was pretty cool."

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