Cleveland, OH – James Loney belted a pair of homers and the Tampa Bay Rays limited the Cleveland Indians to one hit in a 9-2 victory, in a game that didn't end until nearly 3 a.m. local time due to rain delays totaling close to five hours.
The opener of a three-game series saw three separate delays that added up to 4 hours and 49 minutes. Play finally resumed for the final time at 12:13 a.m. That was after a 2-hour and 39-minute delay.
Both teams will be on little sleep for the middle portion of this three game series, which will be played at 1:05 p.m. on Saturday.
Matt Joyce smacked a two-run homer for the Rays, who won their sixth in a row.
Four Tampa Bay pitchers combined on the one-hitter. Jamey Wright (1-1) fanned four over three innings. Josh Lueke allowed one hit in two frames. Cesar Ramos tossed the final three innings for his first save of his career.
"It was fun, its just unbelieveable to be playing baseball at this time now," said Ramos. "Today was a big day for the pen."
Ryan Raburn doubled in the fifth inning for the lone hit for the Indians, losers in six of their last eight contests.
The game started with Matt Moore trying to push his record to 9-0, but that was foiled due to the weather. The lefty pitched one scoreless inning. Cleveland's Corey Kluber threw a pair of hitless frames.
Tampa Bay broke through with in the third when Scott Barnes (0-1) took the mound to start the inning. Yunel Escobar reached with a one-out single and after Ben Zobrist struck out, the Rays strung together four productive at-bats in a row.
Joyce homered to straight away center field for a two-run edge, and after Kelly Johnson walked, Evan Longoria plated him with a double. Loney then followed with a two-run blast into right to cap the five-run inning.
"You just have to put it behind you," said Barnes. "Unfortunately I left a few balls up today and I paid for it."
The Indians cut their deficit to 5-2 in the fifth, when Yan Gomes delivered a sac fly and Raburn followed with a run scoring double off the wall in right field.
Bryan Shaw served up Loney's homer to right in the eighth and the Rays tacked on three runs in the ninth off Rich Hill on RBI singles from Escobar, Zobrist and Sam Fuld.
Game Notes
The Rays optioned pitcher Alex Colome to Triple-A Durham and recalled pitcher Jeff Beliveau from the minor league club. The Rays also announced Friday that Chris Archer was added to the taxi squad and will start Saturday's game ... Barnes was charged with five runs on four hits ... Tampa Bay has won four of the last five meetings.
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