Rays respond to Rangers' ninth-inning rally, win in 10
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Tampa Bay scored twice in the 10th inning to end its season with a 6-4 victory over the Texas Rangers.
The Rays have now ended their last two seasons with series wins over playoff teams, having taken a series from Toronto to close out the 2015 season. The Rangers will now rest up to play Toronto or Baltimore in the American League Division Series starting Thursday in Arlington.
Texas forced extra innings on Hanser Alberto's single off Alex Colome (2-4) in the ninth inning.
That didn't faze the Rays as they jumped on Texas reliever Tanner Scheppers (1-1) with three consecutive hits to open the 10th.
Richie Shaffer scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch and Alexei Ramirez scored on Curt Casali's RBI double. Ramirez, who doubled in the 10th, finished with a season-high four hits, scored twice and picked up an RBI.
Erasmo Ramirez, the 14th pitcher in the game, picked up his second save of the season.
The Rays finished with 13 hits, led by Logan Forsythe, Shaffer and Casali with two each.
The Rays led 2-0 in the third and 3-1 in the third after an infield single from Luke Maile.
The Rangers cut the lead to 3-2 on Jonathan Lucroy's homer in the fourth, but the Rays got that run back in the seventh on an RBI single from Ramirez. The single snapped a scoreless-inning streak for the Texas bullpen at a club record 35 1/3 innings.
The Rays couldn't hold the lead, though, as Brad Boxburger walked four batters in the eighth, with his walk of Jurickson Profar forcing in a run.
While the Rays stuck with their starting lineup throughout the game, Texas used 15 players as they subbed out their regulars.
Texas starter Martin Perez allowed three runs in three innings. Tampa Bay starter Chase Whitley was charged with two runs in four innings.
NOTES: Texas manager Jeff Banister said the club is still undecided if it will go with seven or eight relievers in the American League Division Series. ... The Rangers ended the season with a 60-31 record against teams that are .500 or better. The .659 winning percentage is the best in club history and the highest winning percentage in the majors since Seattle in 2001 (.676). ... Tampa Bay 3B Evan Longoria played his 160th game of the season on Sunday. He's one of three current big leaguers to have played in at least 160 in four consecutive seasons, joining Adrian Gonzalez and Ichiro Suzuki. ... Tampa Bay hitters came into the game with 1,474 strikeouts, which assured them the second-highest total in American League history. Houston batters struck out 1,535 times in 2013.