Austin Meadows highlighted his four-hit, three-RBI performance with a lead-off homer as the visiting Tampa Bay Rays recorded a 6-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday afternoon. Meadows, who also collected four hits in Tampa Bay's 10-5 win at the Chicago White Sox on April 9, had an RBI double and RBI single and reached base five times on Sunday. The power display helped the Rays win three of four in the series and improve to 18-8 on the road this season. Cleveland rookie Oscar Mercado belted his first career homer by going deep to lead off the eighth inning. The homer was the 13,000th in team history. Francisco Lindor had an RBI single as the Indians scratched for a pair of runs in the ninth inning, but Jose Alvarado retired both batters he faced to secure his sixth save and send Cleveland to its sixth loss in seven games. Opener Ryne Stanek struck out three in 1 2/3 innings before giving way to Jalen Beeks (4-0), who allowed two hits over 4 2/3 scoreless frames. The 25-year-old Beeks avenged a dismal performance in his last trip to the mound, as he permitted season highs in runs (five) and hits (eight) in 4 2/3 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. Meadows set the tone early by depositing 3-1 fastball from Trevor Bauer (4-4) well over the wall in center field for his 10th homer of the season and first since May 18. The lead-off homer was the first Bauer had allowed in his career. Tampa Bay tacked on a pair of runs in the third inning, with Tommy Pham extending his hitting streak to 12 games with an RBI single and Ji-Man Choi plating Meadows with a sacrifice fly. The Rays secured a 4-0 lead in the fourth after Kevin Kiermaier ripped a one-out double and scored after catcher Kevin Plawecki's throw to third bounced into left field. Meadows drove in his second run and pushed the advantage to 5-0 with an RBI single to center in the seventh. Bauer allowed four runs and five hits over six innings. — Reuters
