Rays can’t be stopped in San Diego

SAN DIEGO — Manuel Margot hit a three-run home run one batter after a crucial Houston error and made a spectacular catch in right field in his former home ballpark as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Astros, 4-2, Monday to take a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series.

Margot homered off Lance McCullers Jr. with two outs in the first inning on an 87-degree afternoon. An inning later, he tracked George Springer’s long foul ball to right field while shielding his face from the sun and caught it as he tumbled over a padded railing atop a wall and landed on a walkway near the seats down the line at Petco Park.

Margot popped up and held up his glove with the ball in it after a 102-foot sprint. That ended the inning, stranding two runners.

“To have the ability to know where you’re at, and kind of be able to say, ‘Forget it, I know I’m going to hit something but I’m going in,’ and still hang on to the ball, was really, really impressive,” manager Kevin Cash said.

Margot was an outfielder with the Padres from late in the 2016 season until he was traded to Tampa Bay on Feb. 8 for reliever Emilio Pagan.

“I think all the time I played here, I never played right field,” Margot said through a translator.

Margot homered to straightaway center field on an 0-1 pitch from McCullers with two outs in the first. It followed the first of two errors by second baseman Jose Altuve on a grounder to shallow right field by Ji-Man Choi. Altuve’s throw hit the ground before going in and out of first baseman Yuli Gurriel’s glove.

The play originally was ruled an error on Gurriel, but the official scorer later charged the error to Altuve. When Gurriel returned to the dugout, he slammed his glove onto the bench.

Margot’s big plays made a winner of 36-year-old Charlie Morton, who helped Houston win the 2017 World Series, and spoiled an otherwise fine effort by McCullers, who lost despite striking out 11 in seven innings. Three of the four runs off him were unearned.

Morton improved to 4-0 with a 0.90 ERA in the last two postseasons.

Tampa Bay held on through a tense ninth, when Nick Anderson twice loaded the bases. One run scored when Springer hit a one-hopper to second baseman Brandon Lowe, who stepped on the base and started a double play. After walking Altuve and Michael Brantley on four pitches each, Anderson got Alex Bregman to fly out on the first pitch to center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, a step in front of the warning track.