Pinch hitter Nick Madrigal produced a tiebreaking sacrifice fly, Bryan Baker recorded his major league-leading 40th save and the first-place Tampa Bay Rays padded their American League East lead with a 3-2 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Richie Palacios had a single and two RBIs while Victor Mesa singled, scored and walked twice as Tampa Bay (89-59) stretched its lead over the New York Yankees to four games.
Starter Ian Seymour had a dominant stretch after allowing a run in the first inning but failed to win in his sixth straight appearance, five of them starts. The left-hander finished with two runs allowed on four hits over six innings. He whiffed 10 and walked one.
Tyler Wells (5-2) followed Seymour with a scoreless seventh.
Playing their second straight night without star hitter Yordan Alvarez, the Astros (75-74) saw Yainer Diaz get three of the club’s five hits and post an RBI. Isaac Paredes socked a solo homer.
Peter Lambert (8-9) tossed six-plus innings and gave up three runs on six hits. He struck out four with no walks.
Paredes began the middle game the same way Junior Caminero walked off the opener — with a homer to left center. He rocked his 20th homer off Seymour’s 1-0 sweeper in the first inning.
Lambert breezed through the Rays’ lineup over the first four frames by striking out three and yielding only Caminero’s first-inning single. Seymour settled in and retired 14 straight Astros after Diaz singled in the first, which included fanning the side in the fifth.
The Rays’ offense finally got to Lambert in the home half of the fifth behind singles from Mesa and Chandler Simpson. Palacios followed by lashing a single to center to go up 2-1.
Houston snapped Seymour’s run of 16 straight batters when Jose Altuve hit a two-out double in the sixth. He came home on Diaz’s second hit, an RBI single that made it 2-2.
In the seventh, Madrigal managed a sacrifice fly that scored pinch runner Kenny Piper for Tampa Bay’s second lead.
Baker clinched the series win for the Rays by producing a four-out save, capped by Taylor Trammell’s flyout to the wall in right.
