Rays Steal It in 11: Wild Pitches Doom Colorado

Tampa Bay trailed 7-5 heading into the ninth inning and walked out of Colorado with a 9-7 win in 11 innings. The story of the night was a Rays offense that refused to die — and a Colorado bullpen that handed them the game on a platter.

Colorado drew first blood in the first when McCarthy scored on a Moniak groundout, but the Rays answered in a massive third inning. An Aranda walk plated Mullins to tie it, and then Liam Hicks unloaded a 402-foot shot to right that cleared the bases — Palacios, Walls, and Aranda all scored — turning a 1-1 game into a 5-1 Tampa Bay lead in a single swing. Hicks finished 2-for-5 with 4 RBI on the night. Colorado wasn't done, though. Tovar singled to center to score Beck, and then Moniak went deep to right (380 feet), bringing home Tovar and McCarthy to make it 5-5 in the same inning. The third was a complete circus — seven runs scored before either team got out of it clean.

Colorado seized control in the fourth when Castro launched a 392-foot homer to right, scoring Karros and pushing the Rockies to a 7-5 lead. That advantage held through eight innings, and with Colorado's home win probability sitting at 81% entering the ninth, it looked like the Rays were cooked. Then Aranda singled to left, scoring both Walls and Díaz to tie the game at 7-7 — a single play that swung Colorado's win probability from 81% all the way down to 43%, a 38-point collapse in one at-bat. Aranda finished 1-for-5 but his 3 RBI were the most clutch of the night.

The game pushed to extras, and Colorado's bullpen — specifically Frasso — made it ugly fast. Williamson scored on a wild pitch. Then Williamson scored on another wild pitch. The sequence appears almost impossible to believe, but there it is: two runs, two wild pitches, same inning. Caminero then singled to center to score Díaz and make it 9-7, putting the game out of reach. On the Colorado side, Gabriel Hughes gave up 5 earned runs in 5.1 innings with 7 strikeouts — the kind of outing where the stuff looked sharp enough but the damage was real. Tampa Bay's bullpen arms — Legumina (2.0 IP, 0 ER) and Baker (1.0 IP, 0 ER) — kept the Rays within striking distance long enough for the offense to do its thing. This one looks like a gut-punch loss for Colorado: they led by two with nine outs to go and still lost in 11.