Runners on the corners and two outs in the bottom of the first inning at Tropicana Field. (Photo Credit: Anthony Ateek/X-Rays Spex)
Erasmo Ramirez continued his string of terrific pitching on Friday, as the Tampa Bay Rays came from behind to beat the first place Houston Astros by a score of 3-1. The Rays ended the night one game under .500 tied for third place with the Blue Jays.

Erasmo buzzed through the Astros lineup on nine pitches in the first inning with a little help from René Rivera, who gunned down lead-off hitter Jose Altuve as he attempted to swipe second. Ramirez put down the first two batters in the second before Colby Rasmus homered to deep right field to give Houston a one run lead. At that point things looked as though they might turn south. Ramirez walked Chris Carter on five pitches, then allowed a single to center to Jason Castro. Kevin Kiermaier was able to cut off the hit before it bounded to the wall, and saw Carter as he headed to third. The Outlaw air mailed a wild throw to third, but no one was covering the bag. The errant throw caught Evan Longoria flatfooted, but Ramirez hustled over to third and caught the ball, thus avoiding disaster. Erasmo followed by fanning Jake Marisnick to end the inning.

It was just instinct, Ramirez said following the game. Go to the ball. No matter where it is, go and catch it.

From that point on, Ramirez was terrific. He retired 12 of his last 13 batters, and gave up one run or fewer for the ninth time — Erasmo is now tied with Dallas Keuchel, and one behind Chris Archer and Felix Hernandez for the most in the American League. What’s more, he culled an impressive 95.2% LOB over his last 25-2/3 innings of work, something no other starter in the rotation can say. His final line: 6 IP/4 H/1 ER/1 BB/5 K on 77 pitches (50 strikes, 65% strike percentage)

The Rays were able to put Ramirez on the winning side of the ledger with a two-run rally against Collin McHugh in the sixth. Rene Rivera got things started with a base-hit to left off the glove of shortstop Carlos Correa. John Jaso followed with a hard hit double to right, putting runners at second and third. David DeJesus and Evan Longoria each came up with hard-hit RBI groundouts to the pull side for a one-run advantage.

The Rays added to their lead in the seventh when Brandon Guyer belted a two-out solo shot to left for a well needed insurance run.

Jake McGee took over in the seventh and got four outs after allowing a leadoff double to Luis Valbuena. Kevin Jepsen put down both batters he faced in the eighth, and Brad Boxberger tossed a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for his 21st save.

The New What Next

Jake Odorizzi will make his return to the Rays’ rotation on Saturday after being sidelined since June 5 with a left oblique strain, opposite of ace lefty Dallas Keuchel (11-3, 2.14 ERA). In his only career start against the Astros, he surrendered just one hit — a single by Jose Altuve — over 7-1/3 innings en route to a win. Keuchel will make his final start before the All-Star Game. He’s thrown at least six innings in 29 consecutive starts and is the first Astros hurler to win 11 games prior to the All-Star break since 2005 (Roy Oswalt was the last). You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview.

Rays 7/11/15 Starting Lineup

Guyer CF
Jaso DH
Longoria 3B
Forsythe 2B
Butler RF
Loney 1B
Cabrera SS
Elmore LF
Rivera C
Odorizzi RHP

Noteworthiness

— Roster move: the Rays optioned RHP Andrew Bellatti to Triple-A Durham Bulls and have reinstated starter Jake Odorizzi from the 15-day DL.

Odorizzi is happy to get the opportunity to return to the bump prior to the All-Star Break,

I’m happy that I’m getting to start now so that I don’t have to wait the whole All-Star break to throw my first game back. It’ll be good for me that I can be on normal rest after the break so I can come back pretty quick and give these guys who haven’t had a break over the first half of the season, besides their normal rest, an extra break.

— By the by, I will heading to the mountains of North Carolina on Saturday. Contributor du jour Michael Nazzaro will handle the game recaps for the final two games before the All-Star Break.

— Here here:

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