Rays don't make it easy, but beat White Sox behind 3 home runs

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Sep 9, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — Waking up 4 1/2 games back of the final American League playoff spot with just 19 to play, the Tampa Bay Rays knew they had to take advantage of a three-game series against the league-worst Chicago White Sox.

They didn’t make it easy in Tuesday’s opener, letting a three-run lead get away in the middle innings, but they found a way to pull out a 5-4 win.

The key hit came from an unlikely source, reserve infielder Tristan Gray, who hit a go-ahead homer in the seventh inning.

And the final three outs came from closer Pete Fairbanks, who had been struggling.

The Rays halted a three-game skid and got back to .500 at 72-72, with their chance to gain ground on the Seattle Mariners, who hold the third wild-card, pending Seattle’s late game against the Cardinals.

Gray spent the first four months of the season with the White Sox, though all but a couple days with Triple-A Charlotte until the Rays reacquired him on July 26.

Adrian Houser’s return to Chicago, where he spent two months before being traded to the Rays in late July, got off to a rough start as he allowed a home run to No. 2 hitter Kyle Teel.

But Houser settled in after that, striking out six in a row in one stretch and not allowing another hit until the fifth, a two-out triple by Brooks Baldwin that led to a run.

Houser started the sixth and allowed a one-out single to his last batter, Lenyn Sosa, which also led to a run.

Down 1-0, the Rays rallied for three runs in their second. Junior Caminero led off with a double and Josh Lowe followed with a homer, his fourth in his last 17 games and 11th overall. The Rays made it 3-1 when Gray walked with two outs, went to third on a single by Hunter Feduccia and scored on a single by Chandler Simpson.

The Rays extended the lead to 4-1 when Richie Palacios, playing in just his seventh game of the season due to a pair of injuries, homered.

The Rays couldn’t hold the lead. The sixth-inning rally the White Sox started against Houser continued against Mason Montgomery, the hard-throwing lefty. Sox shortstop Colton Montgomery laced a double that rolled between Lowe and center fielder Jake Mangum and scored Sosa. Andrew Benintendi’s two-out RBI single evened things up at 4-4.

The Rays went back ahead in the seventh on a homer by Gray.

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