Austin Meadows perfect at the plate, Rays top Indians in series finale 6-3

CLEVELAND (AP) — Austin Meadows led off the game with a home run and was 4 for 4 with three RBIs, leading the Tampa Bay Rays over the reeling Cleveland Indians 6-3 on Sunday.

Tampa Bay (31-19) is a season-high 12 games over .500 after taking three of four in the series.

The Indians (26-26) fell to .500 for the first time since April 4, when they were 3-3. Cleveland has dropped six of seven and finished 4-7 on its longest homestand of the season.

Jalen Beeks (4-0), who took over after Ryne Stanek recorded the first five outs, gave up two hits in 4 2/3 scoreless innings.

Cleveland scored twice in the ninth to cut into a 6-1 lead, but José Alvarado struck out Oscar Mercado and retired Carlos Santana on a ground ball with two on for his sixth save.

Trevor Bauer (4-4) allowed four runs in six innings and hasn’t won since April 30.

Meadows got the Rays off to a fast start by driving a 3-1 pitch to center for his 10th homer of the season.

Meadows was hit on the right knee by Bauer’s pitch in the fifth but remained in the game and had an RBI single in the seventh. He was credited with an RBI ground-rule double in the ninth when the ball boy seated down the right field line picked up his base hit over first.

Mercado hit his first major league home run in the seventh. The rookie outfielder returned after being out Friday and Saturday. Mercado bruised his right hip after colliding with Leonys Martin while diving for a fly ball Thursday.

Tommy Pham‘s RBI single and Ji-Man Choi‘s sacrifice fly added two runs in the third. Pham has a hit in 12 straight games, the longest active streak in the AL.

Rain began falling steadily in the third inning Sunday and continued throughout the game.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rays: RHP Tyler Glasnow (sore forearm) was moved to the 60-day injured list to make room for RHP Oliver Drake on the 40-man roster. Glasnow has been out since May 11. Drake’s contract was selected from Triple-A Durham. RHP Casey Sadler was optioned to Durham.

Indians: RHP Mike Clevinger (strained muscle in upper back) will throw to hitters in Arizona on Monday.