Rays lose ground in wild card race, fall to Rangers

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Nathaniel Lowe hit his 25th home run in a four-run inning Friday night and the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3.

Lowe's two-run homer was the fourth of five straight hits in the third inning off Corey Kluber, who gave up seven straight hits in the first inning in New York nearly a week earlier.

Rangers starter Martin Perez (12-6) gave up three runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. Three of those were by Rays catcher Francisco Mejia, driving in runs with a single in the second and a double in the sixth.

Jose Leclerq pitched the ninth for his sixth save in seven attempts, retiring Harold Ramirez on a bases-loaded grounder to end the game.

The Rays, who opened a 10-game homestand, left at least one runner on base in every inning except the eighth, losing for the sixth time in eight games.

Kluber (10-9) gave up four runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings, striking out six.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Rays: LHP Brooks Raley was reinstated from the restricted list, and RHP Kevin Herget was optioned to Triple-A Durham. The unvaccinated Raley was unavailable for both of the Rays' series in Toronto this summer.

UP NEXT

LHP Ryan Yarbrough (1-8, 4.38 ERA) will make his 10th start of the season for the Rays on Saturday night after pitching five scoreless innings of relief Sunday against the New York Yankees. RHP Jon Gray (7-6, 3.79) will be making his second start for the Rangers since his return from the injured list with a left oblique strain.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports