ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Starlin Castro drove in a run with a double during a two-run 11th inning and the Washington Nationals beat the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays 9-7 on Wednesday night.
Castro opened the 11th with his hit against Diego Castillo (2-3) and came home on a sacrifice fly by Josh Harrison to make it 9-7.
Tanner Rainey had runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the inning but escpaed for his first save. He struck out Manuel Margot, got a fielder’s choice grounder from Yandy Díaz and fanned Austin Meadows.
Ryan Zimmerman had his 27th career multihomer game and Juan Soto also went deep for the Nationals, who had lost 9 of 12.
Tampa Bay rookie Taylor Walls hit his first big league homer and Joey Wendle connected on his first pinch-hit home run. The Rays are 20-5 since May 13.
Yan Gomes had an RBI single and Kyle Schwarber added a sacrifice fly that put Washington up 7-5 in the 10th.
Randy Arozarena had a leadoff run-scoring triple in the bottom half against Brad Hand and scored to make it 7-7 on Wendle’s single.
Zimmerman tied it at 3 on a third-inning solo shot off Shane McClanahan, and put the Nationals ahead 5-3 on a two-run blast against Jeffrey Springs during the fifth.
Walls got Tampa Bay within one on his seventh-inning solo homer off Kyle Finnegan before Wendle pulled the Rays even at 5 on his drive in the eighth against Daniel Hudson.
Soto hit a two-run homer in the first. All eight of his homers have come on the road.
Patrick Corbin walked his first three batters during a 35-pitch first inning before the Rays took a 3-2 lead on Arozarena’s two-run single off the center-field wall and a sacrifice fly by Mike Brosseau.
Corbin overcame the rough first to go five innings in which he allowed three runs, three hits, walked four and had three strikeouts. He finished with 93 pitches.
McClanahan lasted just three innings, allowing three runs, five hits, three walks and striking out four in a 75-pitch outing.
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT
The Rays announced that Triple-A Durham pitcher Tyler Zombro, hit in the head by a batted ball June 3, was discharged from Duke University Hospital. He will stay in Durham and continue with his outpatient occupational and speech therapy.
STRASBURG SHUTDOWN
Washington RHP Stephen Strasburg (neck strain) has not resumed throwing and Nationals manager Dave Martinez said there’s a good chance that he might see another specialist in the next few days.
“It’s nerve irritation,” Martinez said. “We want it to go away, quiet down a little bit. We’ll see what happens in the next couple days.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: 1B Ji-Man Choi (groin) could play in extended spring training games Friday and Saturday. … RHP Chris Archer (forearm tightness) expects to throw off a mound next week.
UP NEXT
Nationals: RHP Max Scherzer (5-4) will face San Francisco RHP Anthony DeSciafani (5-2) Thursday night. It will be the first game with full seating capacity at Nationals Park since 2019.
Rays: LHP Ryan Yarbrough (3-3) is Friday night’s scheduled starter against Baltimore. He stopped Tampa Bay’s MLB-record of 731 consecutive games without a complete game June 3 at Yankee Stadium.
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