Richie Palacios hits 2-run homer in 10th inning to lift Rays over Twins 4-1
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Richie Palacios hit a two-run homer in a three-run 10th inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Minnesota Twins 4-1 on Sunday. Junior Caminero also went deep for Tampa Bay, which concluded a nine-game, 11-day, season-opening road trip with the 900th career win for manager Kevin Cash. Leading off the extra inning, Palacios hit his first home run of the season to right field on the second pitch he saw from Justin Topa (0-1).
A bases-loaded walk by Caminero scored another run. Bryan Baker (1-0) struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth inning for the win. Kevin Kelly earned his second save with a scoreless 10th.
Matt Wallner homered for the Twins, who had just three hits for the second straight game, and are hitting . 192 as a team. Caminero’s fourth-inning home run off Simeon Woods Richardson came on a pitch that was 1.
14 feet above the ground, the third-lowest a Rays batter has homered on since Statcast began in 2015, behind only Corey Dickerson (0. 82 feet on Oct. 1, 2016) and Brad Miller (1.
08 feet on June 11, 2016). Woods Richardson allowed one earned run on five hits and struck out four in 6 2/3 innings for Minnesota. Nick Martinez pitched six innings of one-hit ball — Wallner’s second-inning home run — and struck out four for Tampa Bay.