PHOENIX (AP) — Kameron Misner and Yandy Díaz had RBI doubles in the 11th inning and the Tampa Bay Rays held on for a 7-6 victory over Arizona on Wednesday night, overcoming Corbin Carroll’s two home runs.

Misner drove in Chandler Simpson with a double off Drey Jameson (0-1), but was thrown out trying for a triple. Jonathan Aranda walked and scored on a two-out double by Díaz.

Eric Orze surrendered an RBI single to Alek Thomas leading off the bottom half, then walked Tim Tawa. Carroll drew a one-out walk to load the bases, but Orze induced Geraldo Perdomo to hit into a game-ending double play for his first career save.

Pete Fairbanks (2-1) got the final two outs in the 10th for the win.

Carroll homered on the third pitch from Rays starter Taj Bradley. Carroll added his ninth of the season with a two-run shot off Mason Montgomery for a 5-4 lead in the seventh.

Díaz had a two-run single in the seventh to give Tampa Bay a 4-3 lead. Chandler Simpson’s RBI single tied it at 5.

Christopher Morel hit a homer off Eduardo Rodriguez in the second to tie it. Misner had a two-out double and scored on José Caballero’s single for a 2-1 lead.

Tampa Bay won for the second time in eight games and improved to 1-4 on the road.

Key moment

Arizona reliever Ryan Thompson yielded the tying run in the eighth and had the bases loaded with nobody out. He struck out pinch-hitter Jonathan Aranda and Caballero before getting Diaz to fly out.

Key stat

Arizona’s Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo, Pavin Smith and Josh Naylor began the day with an MLB-best .961 OPS from the first four spots in the order. The Diamondbacks entered with an .832 OPS against right-handers — tops in the majors.

Up next

RHP Drew Rasmussen (1-1, 0.87) was set to start for the Rays on Thursday night against Diamondbacks RHP Corbin Burnes (0-1, 4.64).

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

J.T Olsen – Bucs Report – Special to Sports Talk Florida

It is officially draft week Buccaneers fans! It’s the last Mock Draft Monday of the year before the real thing kicks off on Thursday night. We will all soon know who the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are drafting this year.

But until Thursday night gets here, we are all left to speculate. All the workouts, all the interviews and all the countless hours of watching these players have come to this. It’s time to push the chips in the middle and place your bets.

In this, my final Bucs mock draft of the year, I will try to predict exactly what Jason Licht will do. It’s a near impossible task, but at this point we have a good idea of the pool of players they will be looking at. So without further ado, here in my final predictive Buccaneers mock draft.

Eliminate the impossible and what’s left must be the truth. So with defensive backs like Jahdae Barron, Malaki Starks and Maxwell Hariston not hitting the Bucs typical thresholds I am going to rule them out. I will also rule out injured players such as Jihaad Campbell and Shavon Revel. Of the players who I expect to be on the board, Ezeiruaku seems like the best guess here.

With so much emphasis around rushing with four, we know the Bucs want to add a pass rusher. Ezeiruaku is one of the most polished and agile pass rushers in this draft and his football character seems off the charts. Put him in the rotation as a rookie and solidify the edge for the next decade.

I think the Bucs would ideally like a corner here, but there are so many projected to go in the late first and early second round, I’m not sure one of them will be available. However, staying in the secondary they can still get a ballhawk in Watts. Getting 13 interceptions over the last two seasons would add a dangerous playmaker to the back end of the defense.

Watts is known for his ball skills, but he’s also a very good run defender. He will lay the hit on ball carriers and make his presence known. Despite average testing, I believe he’d be the top rated safety on the Bucs board.

The Buccaneers have done a lot of work on this receiving class. They have met multiple times with pass catchers projected to go in the first round ranging all the way to the seventh round. Noel is someone who lands in the middle of that scale.

Noel tested as an elite athlete and his college tape backs that up. He is on the shorter side (5’10) with shorter arms and small hands, but he plays bigger than the numbers would indicate. He can play inside and outside and also brings some return ability on special teams.

121) Nick Martin, LB, Oklahoma State 

If there was one linebacker who I would want to back up Lavonte David in this draft then it would be Martin. His instincts as a run defender are very good and he has all the athletic tools to range from sideline to sideline and rack up tackles. He’s also good in coverage, particularly man coverage.

There have been rumors that Martin won’t make it out of the second day of the draft, but based on where sub 6’0 linebackers have historically been drafted I think there’s a good chance he’s there in round four. 

Frazier strikes me as one of the best upside bets in the entire draft. Similar to Zyon McCollum a few years ago, this is a small school prospect with size, speed and ball skills. If he attended a bigger school then we would definitely be talking about him as a day two pick.

The Bucs met with Frazier at the NFL combine. He’s a more polished prospect than McCollum was which means there potential that this could develop into a starter by 2026. Maybe not the immediate help at corner right now, but I like this as a long term developmental piece.

Every good pirate crew needs a guy with a hook. For the Bucs, that guy is Maxen Hook. Unlike Watts, Hook is a best as a box safety who will contribute as a run defender more than in coverage.

Despite playing at a smaller school, Hook tested like a big time athlete. He makes for a nice developmental player, in a similar mold to Jordan Whitehead was a few years ago, and he’s someone who brings special teams value.

For more from J.T. click here, then make sure to follow him on Twitter.

The days of running backs being the headliners at the NFL draft are long in the past with the league’s shift to more passing leading to quarterbacks, pass rushers and pass blockers dominating the top of the draft each year.

The ingredients could be in place for a bit of a change this year thanks to one of the deepest classes of running backs in years following a season when game-changing backs such as Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry became the biggest free agent hits.

“When I was a kid, running back was arguably the most important position on the field,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said at the scouting combine. “I grew up a Cowboys fan — Tony Dorsett, Emmitt Smith, guys like that were my idols. Then we went through this period over the last five, 10 years, where the analytics certainly de-emphasized the position. I think last year, you saw the impact that some of these guys had. … I think (running backs) are looked at as probably replaceable by some people, but if you have a great one, you’ve got a historic one, you just can’t replace those guys.”

The big question headed into the draft Thursday is whether teams view prospects such as Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and North Carolina’s Omarion Hampton as those types of backs worthy of being taken with a premium pick.

Jeanty was projected in the final AP mock draft to go sixth to Las Vegas, which would be the highest pick for a running back since Barkley was taken second overall in 2018 by the New York Giants.

“We just saw Saquon Barkley just change the Eagles in one year,” Raiders GM John Spytek said. “Now they had a great team around him and it was adding an elite player. I think when you sit where we sit, I mean the idea is to add elite players at any position. I don’t try to devalue any certain position. … There’s certain ways to build a team, and I don’t know where we got to a place where we don’t feel like running backs are valued. I come from the University of Michigan to my core, and those guys were certainly really valued there. So, it’s hard for me to get away from that.”

Only one running back in the past six drafts was taken in the top 10 with Bijan Robinson going eighth to Atlanta in 2023. Five running backs were top-10 picks from 2015-18 with two being taken that high in 2017 when Leonard Fournette went fourth and Christian McCaffrey went eighth.

It’s a far cry from earlier eras when running backs were often the top overall pick, including four times in five seasons from 1977-81. No running back has gone first overall since Ki-Jana Carter in 1995.

Teams have been waiting later and later to take running backs with Jonathan Brooks the first to go last year at No. 46 to Carolina. There has been just an average of two running backs taken in the top 50 in the past six drafts, down from a peak of 12 in 1990.

This year’s class of running backs is one of the deepest in recent memory with several players after Jeanty and Hampton projected to be picked either late in the first round or on day two of the draft including Ohio State’s duo of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins; Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson; Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo, Tennessee’s Dylan Sampson; Virginia Tech’s Bhayshul Tuten; and Central Florida’s RJ Harvey.

The shift from a running to a passing league began with rule changes in 1978 that made passing easier and has continued for more than four decades.

The rate of running dropped from a post-merger high of nearly 58% in 1977 to a low of just more than 40% in 2014 before undergoing a slight increase in recent years to 43.4% last season.

But the bell-cow back had mostly disappeared as teams went to a backfield by committee. The league featured 13 players in 2003 who had at least 300 carries in a season — matching the nine-year combined total from 2015-23.

Six players hit the 300-carry mark last season led by Barkley and Henry for the most in a season since 2010.

“For a while, the market maybe was suppressed. People were not looking at them as weapons,” Bills GM Brandon Beane said. “I kind of look for them as anyone you add to your offense, what do they bring? What is their skill set? Is it a mismatched player? … Someone asked, I think a year or two ago, what is your philosophy? Would you draft a running back in the first round? I probably wouldn’t draft a running back that is 3 yards and a cloud of dust, but if it’s a weapon like some of these guys were talking about, heck yeah I would.”

With the diminished role of the featured back, the pay at the position has also suffered with Josh Jacobs’ running back-leading $48 million deal with Green Bay ranking tied for 159th among all players. The $13.6 million franchise tag number for running backs — determined by the highest-paid players at each position — is the lowest of any position outside of specialists.

The rookie wage scale put in place in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement determines salaries for the first four seasons solely on draft position, leading teams to use premium picks on high-value positions such as quarterback, tackle, pass rushers and receivers in order to save money compared to veteran contracts.

That’s a big factor that is hard for some teams to overcome.

“It’s an interesting conversation, because the draft pick is about potential ceiling, ability to play at a certain level, while you have those years under contract below free agency market level, your ability to sustain a second contract,” Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah said. “There’s all these questions that come into that answer before you pull the card.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl