St. Petersburg, FL – Carlos Santana's three-run homer capped a five-run seventh inning and paved the way to a 10-6 Indians win over the Tampa Bay Rays in the third game of a four-game series.
Santana finished the night with a pair of hits and knocked in four runs for the Indians, who have won two of their last three.
Justin Masterson had another rough outing in Tampa Bay, giving up four runs on seven hits and a career-high seven walks in 4 1/3 innings before being let off the hook with a no decision. In six career appearances at Tropicana Field, including five starts, Masterson is 0-4 with a 8.59 earned run average (25 earned runs in 26 2/3 innings).
Esmil Rogers (1-0) picked up the win after tossing 1 2/3 frames of scoreless relief.
Luke Scott and Desmond Jennings combined for seven of the Tampa Bay's 10 hits, as the Rays lost for the fourth time in six games since the All-Star break.
Kyle Farnsworth (0-2) took the loss after being charged with two runs in two- thirds of an inning.
Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson, who lost six straight decisions coming into Wednesday, received a no decision after allowing three runs on five hits and a walk in six innings.
After falling behind 4-0, the Indians scored three runs in the fifth inning and five in the seventh to come from behind for the win.
Hellickson walked Santana and hit Casey Kotchman with two outs before Hannahan knocked them in with a double to right-center field. Shin-Soo Choo swatted a single up the middle to bring Cleveland within one.
"Hellickson's got a good changeup and I was just looking for it," said Hannahan. "I was just kind of pulling off it that first at-bat and he came back and left it over the middle and I was able to put it in the gap."
Farnsworth retired the first two hitters in the seventh before the Tribe strung together six straight hits and took the lead. Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera singled and chased Farnsworth from the ballgame.
Left-hander Jake McGee entered to face Jason Kipnis, who won an eight-pitch battle with a base hit up the middle to tie the game. Brantley followed with another single to center, putting Cleveland ahead. Choo then broke the game open when he crushed a 2-0 fastball over the center-field fence to give Cleveland an 8-4 lead.
"The majority of the time it gets called a strike and you almost want to walk off the mound and he didn't call it and I was kind of shocked," said McGee about a 1-2 pitch to Kipnis that appeared to catch the plate and would have ended the inning. "I just tried to make better pitches the next couple pitches of the at-bat and he got a single up the middle."
Tampa Bay got a run back in the bottom half of the frame when Elliot Johnson chopped an infield single to score Scott.
Cleveland rallied for two more in the ninth inning after Cabrera led off with a double, his third hit of the night. Kipnis followed with an RBI single and came around to score on a base hit by Santana.
Tampa Bay rounded out the scoring in the ninth after Jeff Keppinger walked and Scott doubled. Jennings rolled over a ground ball to drive in Keppinger.
The Rays jumped out in front in the second when Scott and Jennings started the inning with a pair of singles. After advancing on a groundout, Scott scored on a base hit by Johnson and Jennings came home on B.J. Upton's sacrifice fly.
Tampa Bay added two more in the third when Masterson walked Ben Zobrist and Matt Joyce before Scott shot a single through the right side to score Zobrist. Jennings then laid down a bunt single to plate Joyce.
Game Notes
Rays manager Joe Maddon was ejected in the bottom of the seventh inning by home plate umpire Dan Iassogna for arguing balls and strikes...Cleveland has won six of its last 10 road games...Masterson is 1-6 with a 8.08 ERA in nine career starts against Tampa Bay (44 earned runs in 49 innings)...The Rays are 7-16 against the American League Central this season...Hellickson has struck out 14 batters over his last six starts, while walking 18...Hellickson has allowed three earned runs or less in 45 of his 50 career starts...Cleveland went 7-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left five on base...Tampa Bay went 4-for-16 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12.
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