Rays walk away with 3-1 win over Mets

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Rookie Austin Shenton worked a 10-pitch, two-out, bases-loaded walk — the first of two in the bottom of the eighth inning — to break a logjam, and the Rays scraped together enough offense to pull off a 3-1 win over the Mets at Tropicana Field on Saturday night.

The win was the 755th of Kevin Cash’s managerial career, moving him past Joe Maddon for the most victories in franchise history.

The Rays (16-18) have won two straight and clinched their first series since a three-game tilt with the Giants back on April 12-14.

The eighth inning was a relief for the Rays hitters, who spent most of the night flustered by Mets rookie right-hander Christian Scott.

Yandy Diaz lined a single with one out off Adam Ottavino in the eighth. Richie Palacios walked and then Isaac Paredes reached on a slow roller back to the mound. Ottavino and first baseman Pete Alonso both went for the ball, leaving first base open. Francisco Lindor made a tremendous back-handed grab on Randy Arozarena’s chopper and then fired it for the force out at home to save a run.

But Shenton, a lefty hitter, came in to pinch hit for Harold Ramirez and broke the 1-1 tie with a bases-loaded walk to give the Rays the lead. It was just the fourth walk of the season Ottavino had issued. Sean Reid-Foley came in and walked Jose Caballero, who had two walks coming into the game, to bring in the Rays’ third run.

The Rays had wiggled out of a jam themselves in the top of the eighth. After issuing two walks, including intentionally walking Alonso to face J.D. Martinez, Jason Adam got the 36-year-old slugger to strike out and end the inning.

Zack Littell was solid Saturday but had nothing to show for it.

The right-hander allowed a run in the first and then shut the Mets down for the next five innings. He worked around four of the six hits he allowed. He struck out seven and did not walk a batter.

Littell allowed a run in the top of the first when Brandon Nimmo’s short fly ball got away from a sliding Jose Siri for a leadoff double. He scored on Starling Marte’s single that Jonny DeLuca bobbled in rightfield.

The Rays, who broke out for a season-high 10 runs on Friday night, could not get more than one run off right-hander Scott, who was making his MLB debut.

They jumped on the rookie early with the first three Rays batters reaching and a run coming across. They let Scott off the hook and he went on to retire the next 12 batters in a row. He worked around runners in the fifth and sixth to hold the Rays scoreless. That included having DeLuca on third base with Siri at-bat in the sixth. Siri worked a full count before striking out on a slider.

Scott, a Coconut Creek native who played at the University of Florida, left with two outs in the sixth inning to a loud standing ovation from the many Mets fans in the crowd of 18,968. He had allowed one run on five hits. Scott walked one and struck out six over 6 2/3 innings pitched.