Better late than never: Rangers rally to beat Rays in 10th

And just when you were about to give up on this thing ...

Shin-Soo Choo’s two-run homer in the ninth tied the game and Elvis Andrus’ sharply hit infield single drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th as the Texas Rangers came back for a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night at Tropicana Field.

The win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Rangers, tied for their longest of the season.

“As soon as I hit it I thought it was a double,” Andrus said of the shot stopped by Rays third baseman Evan Longoria. “Especially after that hop. He made an amazing play. I tried to bust myself to first. It was a resilient win for us. [Choo’s homer] really gave us the extra energy.”

Yu Darvish held the Rays to three runs on five hits. All three runs came on solo homers, including Mallex Smith’s solo shot in the eighth inning that gave the Rays a 3-1 lead.

Darvish struck out a season-high 12 batters, the most he’s recorded in a game since striking out 12 Rays on Sept. 30. It was Darvish’s 32nd game with 10 or more strikeouts. Only Nolan Ryan (34) had more for the club.

The offense again failed to give Darvish much help, at least until the ninth. In eight of his past 10 starts, the Rangers have scored two or fewer runs. They’ve scored a total of seven runs, including the three Friday, with Darvish on the mound over his past six starts.

Nine times Darvish has started in 2017, the Rangers have scored one or no runs while he was on the mound. It looked like a 10th was coming Friday until Choo’s homer. Darvish was the pitcher of record at that point.

Rays starter Alex Cobb was even stingier than Darvish until the ninth. Cobb held the Rangers to three hits over eight innings, and only two after Andrus’ homer in the first. One was what looked like a sure double down the left-field line in the third inning by Carlos Gomez that was only a single because it hit third base umpire Marvin Hudson and stayed in the infield. Andrus got an infield single in the seventh.

The Rangers didn’t put a runner on second base until Joey Gallo doubled to start the ninth ahead of Choo’s game-tying homer. Adrian Beltre singled and Mike Napoli walked to put two on with two outs in the ninth, but Rougned Odor grounded out to end the top half of the inning.

Jonathan Lucroy led off the 10th with a walk and was pinch-run for by Delino DeShields. DeShields went to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on Gallo’s flyout to right.

After Choo was intentionally walked, Andrus ripped a shot down the third-base line that was stopped by a diving Longoria.

From his knees, Longoria couldn’t put enough on the throw, and Andrus had his second infield single of the night.

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Better late than never: Rangers rally to beat Rays in 10th."