Jonathan Aranda doubled, homered, drove in two runs and scored two for the Tampa Bay Rays in a 7-6 win against the Texas Rangers on Friday night in the second game of their four-game series in Arlington, Texas.
Richie Palacios homered, Yandy Diaz had three hits and scored a run and Junior Caminero had two hits and two RBIs for the Rays (84-57), who had lost two in a row.
Tampa Bay right-hander Nick Martinez (14-4) allowed three runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked two.
Elias Diaz hit a grand slam in the seventh that made it a one-run game, and Ezequiel Duran also homered for the Rangers (70-72), who had won four of five.
Texas started with right-hander Trevor Williams. He threw a scoreless first inning before handing off to left-hander Robby Ahlstrom, who stranded the bases loaded in the second.
Kumar Rocker (5-11) then came in to handle the bulk of the innings and he was tagged for six runs (five earned) and nine hits in five innings. He struck out three and didn’t walk a batter.
Duran led off the second with a home run and Aranda matched him in the third to tie it 1-1.
Palacios homered with two outs in the fourth for a 2-1 lead.
Diaz, Aranda and Caminero started the fifth with three straight opposite-field doubles for a 4-1 lead.
After getting the first out of the inning, Rocker gave up a blooper to shallow center by Victor Mesa Jr., who took second on an error by Evan Carter in center while Caminero was scoring for a 5-1 lead.
The Rays tacked on one more run in the inning when Mesa scored during a rundown to make it 6-1.
Diaz lined a two-strike slider over the fence in left for a grand slam that cut it to 6-5.
Caminero gave the Rays some insurance with an RBI single in the ninth that made it 7-5.
Bryan Baker started the ninth for Tampa Bay before departing with a trainer after walking the first two batters.
Tyler Wells entered and the runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt. Diaz hit a sacrifice fly to cut it to 7-6 before Wells got the final out.
