Liam Hicks hit a grand slam in his Tampa Bay debut and Ben Williamson scored the tiebreaking run on a wild pitch as the Rays beat the Colorado Rockies 9-7 in 11 innings in Denver on Tuesday night.
Junior Caminero drove in an insurance run in the 11th with his second hit of the game and Hicks, Yandy Diaz and Chandler Simpson each added two hits.
Mickey Moniak and Willi Castro homered, Jake McCarthy had three hits and Ezequiel Tovar added two hits for Colorado.
Williamson began the 11th on second as the automatic runner, went to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Nick Frasso’s wild pitch to give the Rays an 8-7 lead. Diaz doubled and scored on Caminero’s single.
Frasso (0-1) lost in his major league debut.
Bryan Baker recorded a 1-2-3 11th for his 32nd save.
Tampa Bay trailed 7-5 entering the ninth but Rockies closer Jordan Romano walked Taylor Walls, Diaz singled and both scored on Jonathan Aranda’s single to center.
Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the first off starter Freddy Peralta, in his first start for the Rays, when McCarthy scored on Moniak’s double play. Tampa Bay answered in the third.
Rockies starter Gabriel Hughes walked Aranda with the bases loaded to tie the game and Hicks cleared the bases with his 15th home run of the season to make it 5-1. Colorado tied it in the bottom of the inning on Tovar’s RBI single and Moniak’s three-run homer, his 19th of the season.
Castro’s two-run homer in the fourth gave the Rockies the lead, and McCarthy’s two-out single ended Peralta’s night.
Peralta allowed seven runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Hughes retired the side in order in the fifth but left after Hicks hit a one-out double in the sixth. The rookie allowed five runs on four hits, walked two and struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings. He has pitched at least five innings in all five of his starts this season.
He was denied his first major league victory when Tampa Bay tied it in the ninth.