Tampa Bay’s Brandon Lowe celebrates with third-base coach Rodney Linares after hitting a homer on the first pitch from Boston’s Nick Pivetta in the first inning Monday night at St. Petersburg, Fla. Chris O’Meara/Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Wander Franco extended his on-base streak 30 games with a two-run single, fellow rookie Luis Patiño pitched neatly into the sixth inning and the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays won their eighth in a row, beating the Boston Red Sox 6-1 Monday night.
Brandon Lowe hit his career-high 31st homer on the first pitch from Boston starter Nick Pivetta, sending the Rays on their way.
Boston, which led the Rays by 1 1/2 games entering a three-game series at Tampa Bay on July 30, dropped nine game back in the division race.
Bobby Dalbec hit his 18th homer for the Red Sox, who hold a two-game lead over Oakland for the second AL wild-card spot.
The 20-year-old Franco tied Mel Ott for the fifth-longest on-base streak by a player under 21 with his hit in the eighth that made it 6-1.
The 21-year-old Patiño (4-3) gave up one run and five hits in 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander was coming off a win on Aug. 21 when he held the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox to two runs over a career-high tying six innings.
The Rays went up 3-1 in the fourth. Kevin Kiermaier hit a two-out double, went to third when Mike Zunino reached on a wild pitch while striking out and scored on Lowe’s high hopper over Dalbec for a single.
Hansel Robles replaced Pivetta (9-7) with two and no outs in the sixth and walked Lowe to load the bases. He ended up allowing just one run when third baseman Rafael Devers was charged with an error after misplaying Nelson Cruz’s soft broken-bat grounder.
Austin Meadows picked up his 92nd RBI on a single in the third to put the Rays up 2-1.
Dalbec tied it at 1 on his second-inning drive.
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