ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Blake Snell struck out 10 in six scoreless innings, Travis d’Arnaud hit his first grand slam and the Tampa Bay Rays stopped their longest losing streak of the year at five games by beating the Chicago White Sox 4-2 on Sunday.
Snell (6-7) allowed three hits and two walks while throwing a season-high 109 pitches.
D’Arnaud had been hitless in 11 at-bats since a three-homer game Monday night in a 5-4 win over the New York Yankees that preceded his team’s recent skid.
Yolmer Sanchez got his 21st triple since 2017 for the White Sox, who won the first two games of the series and were seeking their first sweep since May 27-29 against Kansas City.
Yandy Diaz walked, Avisail Garcia singled and Joey Wendle also walked before d’Arnaud sent a 1-1 pitch from Dylan Cease (1-2) into the left-field seats for a 4-0 lead.
The Rays got all three of their hits in the second when Cease threw 44 pitches. He gave up four runs, three hits, and four walks over five innings in his third career start.
Sanchez had an RBI triple and scored on Adam Engel’s infield single off Andrew Kittredge to make it 4-2 in the seventh.
Emilio Pagan struck out the side in the eighth and Adam Kolarek got his first save since Sept. 1 last year with a 1-2-3 ninth to complete a five-hitter.
Snell worked out of a second-and-third, none-out jam in the first. After Jose Abreu struck out and with James McCann batting, Leury Garcia was tagged out while trying to score from third on a pitch in the dirt that eluded d’Arnaud. Snell covered the plate and took the throw from d’Arnaud.
The 2018 AL Cy Young Award winner ended the inning by striking out McCann.
