Brandon Lowe leads the Rays with some crucial hits and beats the Cardinals

ST. LOUIS — Brandon Lowe figured he hadn’t done enough because the 400-foot fly ball he hit to center field in the seventh inning Thursday landed in the glove of the Cardinals’ Victor Scott II, who jumped the wall and came down without revealing whether he had the ball.

“I had no idea,” Lowe said. “Every single part of me was just going downhill, so I thought he caught it. He didn’t do anything. I looked at some referees who told me to look at another guy. I was a little confused.”

Considering how long the Rays had waited for the game-winning hit, what difference did a few extra seconds of tension make?

“I was pretty happy when I saw the right umpire (signaling a home run),” Lowe said.

The two-run hit that put the Rays ahead was the best of several crucial at-bats in a 6-4 victory. The win gave them a 3-3 tie heading into a trip to Houston and St. Louis, beginning a challenging and likely season-defining stretch of their schedule.

The Rays needed the win, as manager Kevin Cash pretty much said before the game. They improved to 58-56 and moved within five games of the slacking Royals, who hold the third wild-card spot in the American League. The only downside was the departure of Josh Lowe in the first inning, who let a ball bounce off his right knee, leaving it bruised, swollen and sore.

With some key hits, the Rays may have built up some offensive power during a frustrating stretch. They had an astonishing 1-for-23 batting average with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the series and scored three or fewer runs in seven of the 10 games since they began their deadline deals on July 26 with the trade of Randy Arozarena.

“I hope so,” Cash said. “I guess we’ll see, right? But that’s the hope. We’ve got guys who are certainly capable of hitting big, and they will. It’s just been a tough road trip. But the fact that we found a way to hit .500 without really swinging the bats beyond our limits has to be satisfying.”

The first inning was a snapshot. The Rays got off to a promising start when Yandy Diaz hit a single and Brandon Lowe hit a double. They looked like they were going to miss their best opportunity when Christoper Morel (3-for-25 as a Ray) and Josh Lowe struck out, but then they cashed in when Dylan Carlson, who was signed from the Cardinals last week, delivered their first big hit, a single to right that gave them a 2-0 lead.

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“It was definitely a good feeling to come through with a couple of runners in scoring position and get us on the scoreboard early,” Carlson said. “That’s what we wanted.”

Considering they had only scored once with runners in scoring position the previous two nights, this meant a lot.

“That could have been a really frustrating first inning for us, getting to second and third base, having no outs and then not doing anything with it,” Cash said. “We talked about it, and Dylan got two outs and got a big hit that kind of set the tone for us.”

There were some missed opportunities and a lost lead as starter Shane Baz was not at his best. He managed one out until the fifth inning, pitching 91 pitches, allowing four runs, six hits, two walks and two strikeouts.

But trailing 2-4, the Rays caught up in the seventh inning against St. Louis’ bullpen.

Taylor Walls opened with a walk by Kyle Leahy, Curtis Mead singled him to third base, and Diaz – one pitch after what Brandon Lowe called “probably the worst swing I’ve ever seen Yandy make” – hit a sacrifice fly that cut the deficit to 4-3.

The Cardinals brought in left-handed reliever JoJo Romero, and Brandon Lowe continued his hot streak with a two-run homer on the first pitch. In his final 27 games, Lowe has a .330 batting average with nine doubles, seven home runs and 17 RBIs.

“I’m happy for B-Lowe,” Cash said. “He swung the best club in our club and did really well. We talked about how we need to hit some big shots and there’s no bigger one you can hit than this one.”

From there, a trio of dominant relievers took over. Manny Rodriguez singled in the seventh inning, Colin Poche singled in the eighth and — after the Rays scored a run on their second hit with runners in scoring position in the ninth inning — St. Louis-area native Pete Fairbanks, making his first major league appearance at Busch Stadium in front of a crowd of family and friends, singled in the ninth inning.

“It felt pretty good,” Fairbanks said. “I figured if I came into this game, we’ve got to score five runs and then B-Lowe hits a pump (home run), so I’ll take it. B-Lowe seems to think I should be grateful to him. … I think in hindsight I would have been frustrated if I hadn’t pitched here. So it’s good to put an ‘S’ in the column and get an inning on Busch.”

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