Rays 5, Rangers 4 (10)
Desmond Jennings lined a home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the 10th inning as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 5-4 on Wednesday for the 1,000th victory in franchise history.
Jennings hit his ninth homer of the season off Mark Lowe (2-3) into the left-field seats as the Rays won two of three in the series and moved to within seven games of Boston in the American League wild card standings.
The Rays improved to 1,000-1,245 in their 14th season.
The Rangers lead the American League West by 2 1/2 games over the Los Angeles Angels, who beat the Seattle Mariners 3-1.
Ian Kinsler belted his second home run of the game, and seventh in seven days, with one out in the top of the ninth to tie the game 4-4 for the Rangers off closer Kyle Farnsworth. It was Farnsworth’s fifth blown save.
Tampa Bay starter David Price, who went over 200 innings pitched for the second straight year, struck out five to reach 200 strikeouts for the first time in his career.
Price and James Shields are just the fourth set of teammates in the American League to reach 200 strikeouts in the last 20 years. A.J. Burnett and Roy Halladay of Toronto (2008), Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling of Boston (2004), and Mike Mussina and Rogers Clemens of the New York Yankees (2001) also accomplished the feat.
Mike Napoli homered among his four hits for the Rangers.