Rays lose no-hitter vs. Red Sox in extra innings but rally for wild walk-off win

Baseball can leave you speechless.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox reminded us of that Saturday in an absolutely wild game at Tropicana Field, won by the Rays on Kevin Kiermaier's walk-off home run in the 10th inning.

Employing the "opener" strategy they helped pioneer, six Rays pitchers (J.P Feyereisen, Javy Guerra, Jeffrey Springs, Jason Adam, Ryan Thompson, Andrew Kittridge) combined to no-hit the Red Sox through nine innings.

The problem: Boston's pitchers were nearly as good. Tampa Bay generated just two hits through nine and no runs, so the game headed to extra innings knotted at 0-0.

“You don’t want to see that go to waste,” Kiermaier said of the Rays pitchers' effort. “They threw great. Both sides did. This is about as good a pitchers’ duel as you can get, each team using six or seven arms. But this is 2022 for you. Nothing is normal anymore.”

The game seemed to unravel for the Rays once extra innings hit. Bobby Dalbec's triple off Matt Wisler — which right fielder Brett Phillips couldn't quite get to — broke the seal for the Red Sox and scored outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who was on second base thanks to MLB's extra-innings rule that sees a runner start on second.

Dalbec eventually scored on a sacrifice fly as the Red Sox exited the frame with a 2-0 lead.

Then, the improbable happened.

Boston's Hansel Robles induced two strikeouts to push the Rays to the brink. But then a balk moved ghost runner Randy Arozarena to third, and he scored to cut the deficit to 2-1 when Red Sox second baseman Trevor Story threw away what should have been the final out.

“A tough play. An unbelievable play (for Story) just to stop the ball,” Boston bench coach Will Venable, filling in for Alex Cora after the Red Sox manager tested positive for COVID-19, said. “A ball he’s got to get rid of quickly, and it didn’t go our way.”

One batter later, on a 3-1 count, Kiermaier hit the first walk-off home run of his career to give the Rays a 3-2 win.

Kiermaier said after the game that he was using Arozarena's bat.

“It’s a dream of mine. I’ve wanted to hit a walk-off homer. I’ve never done it any level,” Kiermaier said. “I’ll never forget this moment, this day. After my early season struggles I needed that so bad. Our team did. What a win!”

The Rays improved to 8-7 with the improbable victory, while the Red Sox fell to 7-8.

Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rays lose combined no-hitter in extras, get walk-off vs. Red Sox