Evan Carter's leadoff swing in the eighth gave Texas a path back into a game Drew Rasmussen had controlled all night.
Carter drove a 421-foot home run to right-center, his ninth of the season, trimming Tampa Bay's lead to one after the Rays had scored in the top of the eighth. Justin Foscue later doubled home Cody Cauley to knot it at 3-3. By the time the 10th inning closed, Tampa Bay had walked out with a 6-3 win, Jonathan Aranda's three-run homer providing the separation.
Texas fell to 70-73, three games behind Houston in the American League West, while the Rays improved to 85-57 with the best record in the AL.
ESPN's box lists Carter 1-for-4 with a run, an RBI, two strikeouts, and a .196/.293/.329 line after the night. The RBI total moved to 35. One swing does not rewrite a season average that thin, but it did force Tampa Bay's bullpen into a game it had owned for seven innings.
How the deficit formed
Junior Caminero opened the scoring with an AL-leading 38th home run, a 425-foot drive in the first off Jacob deGrom. Richard Palacios added a career-high eighth homer in the fifth. Texas' only answer before the eighth was Joc Pederson's 409-foot solo shot in the sixth, his team-high 25th, which cut the gap to 2-1 against Rasmussen.
Rasmussen was the story until he left. He worked seven innings, allowing three hits and one run with no walks and seven strikeouts. deGrom matched the strikeout total over six innings but surrendered two runs on four hits, one walk, and two home runs, leaving with a 3.96 ERA.
The Associated Press noted deGrom has allowed a major-league-high 10 first-inning home runs this season, with a 9.00 ERA in 27 first innings against a 2.79 mark thereafter.
Eighth-inning spark, 10th-inning unraveling
Carter's blast off Kevin Kelly flipped the mood inside the park after Tampa Bay's top-of-the-eighth run had stretched the lead to 3-1. Foscue, who had replaced Pederson as a pinch-hitter, doubled home Cauley to tie it 3-3. Tyler Wells then threw two scoreless innings for Tampa Bay, allowing no hits and striking out three, and earned the win to move to 4-2.
