72-74 - Rangers throw one away, fall 5-3 to Rays in extras

The Texas Rangers had three hits through the first 10 innings of the game tonight and yet somehow held a 3-1 lead heading into the eighth inning before the Tampa Bay scored the next four runs before all was said in done.

Tied 3-3 in the ninth, the Rangers had runners on second and third and couldn’t get the big hit to end this one. Meanwhile, the Rays were able to take a lead in the eleventh via errors on a couple of throws by Emmanuel Clase and Rougned Odor on the same play with two out in the inning which allowed the Rays to eventually grab the win.

You’re welcome, Jeff Sullivan.

Player of the Game: Peter Fairbanks will probably be a quality late-inning relief pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays for years to come, and he might end up pitching innings that help the Rays win playoff games as soon as this October but, though the returns are extremely early, there’s a pretty good chance the Rays will regret sending Nick Solak to the Rangers for Fairbanks as Solak has done everything Texas could ask for and more in his first few weeks in the bigs.

Tonight that included Solak belting a two-run bomb for the Rangers against his old team to make things dicey for them as they’re in the middle of a push to take an American League Wild Card spot and were forced to make a harrowing comeback bid to hold onto this one.

Solak added an infield single in the eleventh to up his average to a crisp .333 in first 20 games. Fairbanks, of course, picked up his first career save.

Up Next: The Rangers and Rays are back in action on Wednesday with both teams currently undecided on who will be their starting pitchers. Nevertheless, the game will be played regardless with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.