ST. PETERSBURG – Well, that was more exciting than necessary.
Having finally gotten some breathing room against the Angels with a pair of runs in the eighth inning on Sunday afternoon, the Rays seemed ready to cruise to victory.
And then Mike Trout hit a one-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Diego Castillo, and the Angels got the tying run in scoring position.
Castillo, in the closer’s role with Jose Alvarado tending to family matters, got Albert Pujols to bounce out and struck out Kole Calhoun looking on a 3-2 pitch to close out the 6-5 victory.