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No punches, no angry words exchanged.
With first place on the line in the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox stuck to playing baseball Monday night.
James Shields scattered five hits over 6 1-3 innings and B.J. Upton and Gabe Gross homered, helping the Rays remain unbeaten at home against the Red Sox with a 5-4 victory that hiked their lead to 1 1/2 games in the division.
“This is an intense series,” Boston’s Mike Lowell said. “I know there’s a little history, but I think both teams played good baseball.”
The Rays (50-32), surprising owners of the best record in baseball, have won six of seven and shrugged off a six-game losing streak to Boston, which is 6-0 against Tampa Bay at Fenway Park but 0-4 at Tropicana Field.
It was the first meeting between the combative division rivals since their much talked about June 5 benches-clearing brawl at Fenway that led to the suspensions of eight players, including Shields (6-5).
Both managers said beforehand that they didn’t anticipate any carryover from the melee that ensued after Shields hit Coco Crisp in the leg with a pitch during the second inning of a 7-1 Tampa Bay loss.
“I knew from both sides nothing was going to happen. It was over,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “We’re professionals, they’re professionals, and all that business is in the past.”
Shields was suspended for six games for his part in the brawl. This time, he limited Boston to two runs before Tampa Bay’s bullpen barely held on to hand the Red Sox their 11th straight one-run road loss.
Grant Balfour bailed the Rays out of a jam in the seventh, and J.P. Howell got the final out of the ninth after Boston scored twice on Brandon Moss’ RBI double and Jason Varitek’s sacrifice fly off Troy Percival trim the Red Sox deficit to one run.
Percival limped off the mound after appearing to tweak a sore hamstring backing up the plate on Varitek’s sacrifice fly. Percival had an animated argument with Rays manager Joe Maddon before leaving.
“Percy was very upset, and I knew he was going to be very upset. He and I go way back, and everything’s going to be fine between he and I,” Maddon said. “He’s been (closing games) for years and I know he wants to be the last man standing, but I have to do what I believe is right at that particular moment.”
The 38-year-old closer apologized to the manager.
“I hate coming off the mound in the middle of the inning—don’t like doing it, and it’s embarrassing—but Joe did the right thing. … I know better than to act like that. The situation got the better of me.”
Howell earned his second save in three opportunities when Julio Lugo lined out to shortstop.
J.D. Drew hit his 16th homer for Boston, cutting Shields’ lead to 4-2 in the sixth. It gave him 12 homers in June, third-most by a player in Red Sox history behind Jackie Jensen (14 in 1958) and Ted Williams (13, 1950).
Lowell drove in Boston’s first run with a fourth-inning single off Shields, who walked one and struck out five.
The Rays scored four runs off Justin Masterson (4-2), three of them following two-out walks. Upton homered on the right-hander’s first pitch of the game, and Gross added a two-run shot after the Boston starter walked Dioner Navarro in the fourth.
A two-out walk to Wily Aybar also proved costly when Carlos Pena followed with a RBI double to make it 4-1 in the fifth. Jonny Gomes drove in what turned out to be the deciding run when he grounded into a force play with the bases loaded in the seventh.
Shields departed after giving up a leadoff single to Lowell and retiring Kevin Youkilis on a soft liner to shortstop in the seventh. Trever Miller walked Moss before Balfour escaped the jam by getting Varitek to foul out to the catcher and Lugo to hit a grounder back to the mound.
Both Varitek and Lowell said they think Tampa Bay has the capability to hang in the division race for the long haul.
“It’s no fluke. They’re a talented group,” Lowell said. “I think a lot of times when you have a lot of young guys, you don’t know how they measure up. There’s no track record. But I think the talent is there. You’ve got to respect that.”
Xtra, xtra: Rays 2B Akinori Iwamura served the last game of his three-game ban should return to the lineup Tuesday night. Boston had been in first place for 25 consecutive days before Sunday’s loss at Houston dropped them behind the Rays. Upton’s homer was his first since June 8 (Associated Press - Sports).
What a first half the Tampa Bay Rays enjoyed as the majors’ surprise team of the season. Their goal now? To make the second half just as stunningly good.
Backup catcher Shawn Riggans homered among his three hits and drove in two runs and the first-place Rays completed a remarkable first-half turnaround, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 Sunday behind Andy Sonnanstine’s seven effective innings.
Tampa Bay regained first place in the AL East for the first time since June 3 when the Boston Red Sox lost at Houston 3-2. The Red Sox and Rays open a three-game series at Tropicana Field on Monday night.
The Rays are 49-32, the most victories midway through a season by a team that had the majors’ worst record the season before, according to Stats, Inc. They went 5-1 on a road trip to Florida and Pittsburgh and finished 12-6 in interleague play.
All this by a team that has never had a winning season or won more than 70 games since joining the AL as an expansion team in 1998.
“We went 5-1 on the trip and I felt we let one slip away,” said closer Troy Percival, who pitched the ninth inning for his 18th save in 20 opportunities. “You get to that point, you’ve got a team that’s doing something special.”
The Rays’ .605 winning percentage has been bettered at midseason by a team that was the worst overall the previous season only by the 1903 New York Giants (.643, 45-25).
“This is great, but it’s only the first half,” said Riggans, who has 15 RBIs in 73 at-bats. “Nobody remembers the first half, everybody remembers the second half and the last day of the season. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. Interleague play is done now.”
All the qualities that led to Tampa Bay’s strong first half were visible: effective starting pitching, power from a fast-improving offense and timely hitting.
“I’m not going to sit here and say I expected us to be at this particular place in the standings,” manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s been an anonymous first half … there’s no one guy having a killer season, which makes it more appealing to me that we’re at this juncture, knowing somebody’s going to turn into a beast in the second half.”
Sonnanstine (9-3) limited Pittsburgh to two runs, one earned, and is 6-0 after a Rays loss. Tampa Bay was a 4-3, 13-inning loser on Jason Bay’s game-ending home run Saturday night.
Riggans and Willy Aybar hit solo home runs, the only runs allowed by Pirates starter Tom Gorzelanny in six innings, and Riggans’ run-scoring single capped a go-ahead two-run eighth inning.
Carlos Pena singled to start the eighth against Tyler Yates (3-1). Right fielder Xavier Nady overthrew third on Aybar’s single, allowing Pena to score, and Aybar wound up at third. Riggans’ single for his career-high third hit made it 4-2.
“We talk about it all the time, going from first to third, but I tell you not everybody on this team would have tried that,” Maddon said.
Nady leads NL outfielders with nine assists, and manager John Russell hopes he doesn’t become too cautious based on one misplay.
“It hurts when you make that kind of mistake at that part of the game,” Russell said. “The throw got away from him and at an inopportune time.”
Interleague play hurt the Pirates again. They are 38-43 at the break, a three-game improvement from their 35-46 of last season, but were 5-9 against the AL. They are a major league-worst 62-103 in interleague play.
“Interleague was a challenge, and it will be good to get back into the division,” Jack Wilson said. “But we still have the feeling we can roll off five, six, seven (victories) in a row … maybe we haven’t had that feeling the last few years.”
In the fourth, Freddy Sanchez doubled and advanced to third when center fielder B.J. Upton casually tried to backhand the ball and it eluded him. Sanchez scored on Bay’s sacrifice fly.
Wilson doubled leading off the Pirates’ sixth and moved up on Sanchez’s sacrifice bunt. Catcher Riggans then left home plate unoccupied while trying to field Nate McLouth’s slowly hit ball between the plate and the mound, so Sonnanstine’s only option was to throw to first as Wilson scored from third to tie it at 2.
Ryan Doumit’s pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth off reliever Dan Wheeler made it 4-3.
Xtra, xtra: Rays 3B Evan Longoria failed to drive in a run for the first time during a seven-game hitting streak (14-33, .424). Riggans played for only the ninth time in 49 games (Associated Press - Sports).
With one swing of the bat, Jason Bay turned a miserable night into an ecstatic one.
After going hitless in five at-bats, Bay homered in the 13th inning to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday night.
“That’s the funny thing about baseball,” said Bay, who struck out three times. “One at-bat can turn a bad day into your best day.”
Bay’s 16th homer came off Jason Hammel (3-3), who was in his second inning of work. He drove a 2-2 fastball into the left-field bullpen, ending a 3 hour, 53 minute game that was delayed 42 minutes at the start.
“In that situation, with the game in extra innings, every guy is swinging as hard as they can,” Bay said. “I had been fouling off pitches all night, putting myself into bad counts. Lucky for me, I got a pitch over the plate.”
Xavier Nady and Jose Bautista each had two hits for the Pirates, who stopped Tampa Bay’s four-game winning streak. Still, the Rays have won 10 of 14 games.
John Van Benschoten (1-2), who was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis before the game, pitched a scoreless inning of relief and picked up the victory.
Van Benschoten, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2001 draft, earned his second career win and first since September 10, 2004, against Houston. The right-hander improved his career record to 2-12.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster,” Van Benschoten said. “It was definitely a good way to end the night. That was a grind out there. It was huge to win the game.”
T.J. Beam, also recalled from Triple-A before the game, pitched two scoreless innings. In all, five Pirates relievers limited Tampa Bay to one run and three hits in seven innings.
“They all threw the ball outstanding,” Pirates manager John Russell said.
Bay’s hit highlighted a game that was tied three times and featured some clutch pinch-hitting in the late innings.
The Pirates took a 3-2 lead with a run in the seventh. Adam LaRoche drew a walk against Tampa Bay starter Edwin Jackson leading off. Bautista sacrificed him to second. After an out, Doug Mientkiewicz, pinch-hitting for reliever Tyler Yates, drove a 3-2 pitch into the center-field gap for a run-scoring double.
Tampa Bay tied it with its first batter in the eighth. Jonny Gomes, hitting for Eric Hinske, capped a 15-pitch at-bat against reliever Damaso Marte with his sixth home run of the season.
“I really didn’t know it was 15 pitches until I came in and watched,” Gomes said. “I thought it was eight or nine. I kept battling. Leading off late in the game, I was just trying to get on base and make contact. … In long at-bats, the batter has an advantage. You’ve seen all of his pitches. You’ve got his velocity down.”
Emergency starter Ty Taubenheim pitched six effective innings for Pittsburgh. He allowed two runs and seven hits, struck out four batters and walked three. He also drove in his first career run with a double in the fifth.
“He pitched really well,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “He settled in, and his ball was moving well. He had a lot of poise. And he’s a pretty good hitter, too.”
Taubenheim was called up from the minor leagues on Friday night to fill in for the injured Phil Dumatrait. The 25-year-old right-hander was making his first appearance in the major leagues since June 23, 2007, when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was optioned back to Triple-A after the game. The Pirates are expected to make a corresponding roster move Sunday.
Jackson allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out three and walked two. Jason Bartlett had two hits and a walk for the Rays.
Xtra, xtra: Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura served the first of his three-game suspension, forcing Maddon to juggle his lineup. Among the changes, Upton hit leadoff, Iwamura’s usual spot, and Willy Aybar started at second. As part of African-American heritage weekend, the teams wore Negro League uniforms. The Pirates wore Pittsburgh Crawfords uniforms, and the Rays wore Jacksonville Red Caps uniforms (Associated Press - Sports).
Home runs to left field, home runs to right, line drives all over PNC Park. The Tampa Bay Rays are fast developing not only into one of the majors’ best young teams, but one of the best teams, period.
Or exactly the kind of team the Pittsburgh Pirates have spent 16 years trying to become.
Evan Longoria and Eric Hinske hit three-run homers off the Pirates’ Jimmy Barthmaier in his major league debut, and the streaking Rays quickly opened a seven-run lead in beating Pittsburgh 10-5 Friday night.
In a matchup of two of baseball’s worst teams over the last decade, the much-improved Rays showed the Pirates their blueprint for rebuilding, with plenty of fast-progressing players who can hit for power.
The Rays are a franchise-best 17 games over .500 at 48-31 after winning four in a row, five of six and 10 of 13; the Pirates are 37-42 during a 16th consecutive losing season.
Barthmaier (0-1), a former Astros prospect who began the season in Double-A, was called up because the Pirates are down two injured pitchers and are thin on minor league starting pitching prospects. His inexperience showed. The right-hander gave up seven runs and seven hits in 2 1-3 innings and was in trouble from the start.
“We didn’t want to give him a chance to settle in,” said Longoria, who was 4-for-5 and is 12-for-24 over his last five games. “It’s always tough on a first-time guy—he may be a little more amped up than normal. He was making too many mistakes over the plate. It’s the big leagues, and guys are going to hit that. We did what we wanted to.”
And in a hurry.
Carl Crawford singled and Hinske walked in the first ahead of Longoria’s 15th homer, a drive to left-center that made it 3-0 only five batters into the game.
“Sometimes you find your stride, and I’m comfortable at the plate and confident, and I’m trying to ride it out,” Longoria said. “You never know when it will come and go.”
In the third, Hinske hit a 3-1 pitch deep into the right-field seats with two on and none out for his 13th. Dioner Navarro added an RBI double later in the inning, making it 7-0.
“I’ll definitely work on what I need to do,” said Barthmaier, who was optioned back to Triple-A Indianapolis after the game. “It was definitely tough. But I’m looking forward to being back.”
Hinske and Crawford also scored three runs as the Rays’ Nos. 1-5 hitters combined for 13 of their 15 hits. Crawford hit a solo homer, his eighth, off Sean Burnett in the sixth for his third hit.
The Rays have scored 37 runs while winning their last four.
“If you get a couple of hitters heating up as a group in the middle of the lineup, it helps a lot and it looks like it’s turning in that direction,” manager Joe Maddon said.
The Pirates, giving up 10 runs for the second time in as many games, couldn’t overcome Barthmaier’s shaky debut despite scoring four runs in the fourth against Scott Kazmir (7-3). Kazmir won for the first time in four starts despite lasting only five innings. He hasn’t pitched longer than 5 2-3 innings in his last three starts.
Kazmir didn’t allow a hit until Freddy Sanchez hit his fifth homer leading off the fourth, but went on to allow four runs in the inning on Chris Gomez’s RBI single and Jack Wilson’s two-run single.
Tampa Bay came back with three more runs on Crawford’s homer, plus Carlos Pena’s sacrifice fly and Jason Bartlett’s run-scoring single in a two-run seventh against John Grabow. Pena played for the first time since breaking his left index finger June 3 in Boston, batting sixth—two spots lower than usual.
Reliever Denny Bautista, acquired in a trade Wednesday with Detroit, also made his Pirates debut but came out after being hit in the right forearm by Akinori Iwamura’s line-drive single in the fourth. X-rays showed no break, but Bautista may not be able to pitch for a couple of games.
Xtra, xtra: Rays reliever Grant Balfour pitched 2 1-3 scoreless innings. Sanchez’s homer was the eighth against Kazmir in five starts. Bartlett missed the previous two games for the birth of a son. Longoria homered for the second day in a row and leads all rookies in homers. Tampa Bay is 11-5 in interleague play. The Pirates are 4-8 this season and a major league-worst 61-102 since interleague play began in 1997 (Associated Press - Sports).
Matt Garza couldn’t sleep Thursday morning. Phone calls and text messages kept coming in from his former Fresno State teammates, who had just won the College World Series.
The calls from back home kept waking him up, and he only got a couple hours sleep before his noon start.
Now he’ll be calling them.
Garza pitched a one-hitter, allowing only Hanley Ramirez’s home run leading off the seventh inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Florida Marlins 6-1 Thursday to complete a three-game sweep.
“I was trying to top them,” Garza said. “Almost.”
Garza (6-4) struck out 10 and walked one in his first complete game in 38 major league starts. He faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings on a humid afternoon in Miami, where weekday day games are unusual.
“The heat was coming from that 94, 95 mph he was throwing with movement,” Florida’s Luis Gonzalez said. “He was pinpointing his pitches; throwing in, out, up, down, everything.”
Jeremy Hermida was the first player to reach base for the Marlins, drawing a one-out walk in the fourth inning. Garza then got Jorge Cantu to ground into a double play.
Ramirez’s line-drive homer was the only hard-hit ball for Florida, which broke bats and popped up bloopers against the fast-working Garza. The pitch, a slider off the plate, was a ball most hitters wouldn’t swing at, Garza said.
“It was outside the zone and he went out there and got it,” Garza said. “You just have to tip your cap and say, ‘Good job.’ I don’t know how he hit it. I wouldn’t swing at it.”
Ramirez said he was expecting a slider.
“I was trying to catch him off guard with the first pitch of the inning, and just tried to get my bat on it,” Ramirez said.
The homer kept Tampa Bay as one four teams that has never thrown a no-hitter, joined by the New York Mets, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies.
Rays manager Joe Maddon said Garza was unlucky, with Ramirez swinging at a pitch out of the strike zone.
“That wasn’t a bad pitch,” Maddon said. “If you look at that sucker, that was barely off the ground. That just speaks to his hitting ability. If you want to make that pitch 10 out of 10 times, we’ll take it. That was just a good piece of hitting right there.”
Rays catcher Shawn Riggans couldn’t help but think what could have been. He tried to stay away from Garza and didn’t want to break his concentration.
“I was definitely watching that scoreboard,” said Riggans, who had three RBIs. “That’s the best pitching performance I’ve ever caught. It was fun, a lot of fun.”
Evan Longoria homered and had three hits for the Rays, who swept their Sunshine State rival for just the second time.
Mark Hendrickson (7-6) allowed five runs, five hits and five walks in 4 2-3 innings. Hendrickson, Florida’s opening-day starter, is 0-4 in six starts since beating San Francisco on May 25.
Riggans hit a sacrifice fly in the second to put Tampa Bay ahead and made it 5-0 with a two-run double in the fifth. Longoria homered in the fourth, and Akinori Iwamura hit an RBI infield single later in the inning after Hendrickson walked the bases loaded.
Ben Zobrist homered leading off the eighth against Doug Waechter.
Xtra, xtra: James Shields pitched a one-hitter for Tampa Bay against the Los Angeles Angels on May 9. The Rays won the season series 4-2. The Marlins have gone 5-10 in interleague play this season and will have only their third losing season against the AL. The Marlins are 110-91 in interleague play, best among NL teams (Associated Press - Sports).
Carl Crawford had two home runs before the Tampa Bay Rays really got started.
Crawford’s second homer of the game started a 10-run, 14-batter, 32-minute barrage in the fifth inning, and the Rays defeated the Florida Marlins 15-3 Wednesday night to stay within one game of Boston in the AL East.
Crawford had a career-high five RBIs. Evan Longoria had three hits and three RBIs, including his 13th homer of the year in that colossal fifth—during which the Rays came within one run of matching the biggest inning in franchise history.
“Just a bad day for the Fish,” said Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez.
“It was nice to watch,” offered Rays manager Joe Maddon.
The Rays set season highs for runs scored and for victory margin, and tied a season best with four home runs: Ben Zobrist also connected for Tampa Bay (46-31), which didn’t reach the 46-win mark last year until Aug. 15.
“That was something special tonight,” Longoria said. “We don’t click too often. Tonight hitting just became contagious.”
James Shields (5-5) allowed four hits, one run and struck out five over seven innings, getting his first win in eight starts for the Rays, who beat Florida for the second straight night and clinched the season series against their Sunshine State rival.
Mike Jacobs hit his 18th home run and Dan Uggla notched his 58th RBI for Florida, which has lost eight of its last 12 games.
“We kind of put this one behind us in like the seventh inning, when it was 14-0 or 15-0,” Uggla said.
Jeremy Hermida and Uggla each finished with two hits, and Matt Treanor scored in the ninth on the Rays’ fourth error of the game, when second baseman Akinori Iwamura threw wide of first.
Some shoddy Tampa Bay defense could be forgiven in this one.
“Fifteen runs in a game, it’s a little easier to pitch that way,” Shields said. “I’ll take that every game.”
The Rays took a 4-0 lead into the fifth, then simply began teeing off against Marlins starter Ryan Tucker (2-2) and just about everyone else who relieved him.
Crawford led off with his seventh homer of the year, B.J. Upton walked, then scored one batter later on Eric Hinske’s double, ending Tucker’s night.
“Definitely the worst I’ve felt since I’ve been here,” Tucker said. “Nothing was working for me.”
That was a shared sentiment throughout the Marlins’ clubhouse.
Tucker was replaced by Eulogio De La Cruz, summoned earlier Wednesday from Triple-A Albuquerque to be the Marlins’ long reliever. Longoria greeted De La Cruz with a homer, and a few minutes later, the young right-hander headed to the Marlins’ dugout having been unable to retire any of the six batters he faced.
Shields hit a bases-loaded grounder that Hanley Ramirez booted, allowing Gabe Gross and Dioner Navarro to score for a 10-0 lead. Iwamura hit an RBI double, Crawford had an RBI groundout, and Upton and Longoria added run-scoring singles to cap the burst.
Tucker allowed seven runs and eight hits in four-plus innings, by far the worst start of his four-appearance major league career. In two outings against the Rays, Tucker is 0-2 with a 12.00 ERA; against anyone else, he’s 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA.
“A bad game all around,” Tucker said.
The Rays’ franchise record for runs in an inning is 11, done twice: last Aug. 27 at Baltimore, and on May 28, 2000, against Seattle. It also was the most runs allowed by the Marlins in an inning this season, easily topping the seven they yielded in the second inning at Philadelphia on May 30.
Jacobs spoiled the shutout bid in the sixth, hitting a solo shot into the left-field seats. Uggla delivered an RBI single in the eighth.
Xtra, xtra: It was the third time Tampa Bay scored exactly 10 runs in an inning. Crawford has had three other two-homer games in his career, all coming between May 26 and June 30, 2006. Longoria had three hits for the third time this season. The teams play a rare 12:10 p.m. start to end the series Thursday (Associated Press - Sports).
Joe Nelson missed by a couple of inches, and that was all the space the Tampa Bay Rays needed for yet another win.
Dioner Navarro and Eric Hinske drew bases-loaded walks off Nelson in the eighth inning to give Tampa Bay the lead, Evan Longoria hit a two-run double in the ninth and the Rays beat the Florida Marlins 6-4 on Tuesday night to stay within one game of Boston in the AL East.
Akinori Iwamura had three hits, including his fifth home run, and Carl Crawford added two hits for the Rays, who improved to 3-25 when trailing after seven innings.
“We pitched well,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “We did not play well.”
Troy Percival walked four Marlins in the ninth but still managed his 18th save in 20 chances and No. 342 of his career, moving him past Rollie Fingers into ninth on the career list.
“Rollie was one of my idols, so it’s great to say I did what he did,” said Percival, who acknowledged that his troublesome hamstring was sore Tuesday. “But I don’t have the time to look back at these numbers now.”
Jorge Cantu had two hits for the Marlins, who fell to 32-3 when leading after seven. Marlins starter Scott Olsen allowed four hits and struck out four in seven innings, but left without a win for the ninth straight time dating back to May 6.
“Personal wins are nice. They’re good for arbitration,” Olsen said. “But we’re trying to catch the Phillies right now.”
He did his part. Instead, his bullpen failed Tuesday, allowing four runs in two innings to waste a 3-2 lead.
The Rays loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth against Renyel Pinto (2-3) on three straight singles, two of which never left the infield. Iwamura singled to right, and Willy Aybar followed with a bunt single off the third-base bag. Crawford then hit a ball to the right of first baseman Mike Jacobs, who fielded it cleanly, but had no chance to throw the speedy Crawford out.
“At least he didn’t walk three guys or that kind of stuff,” Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “It wasn’t as bad as the linescore will look.”
Still, that was it for Pinto, and the Marlins summoned Nelson—who was one strike away from escaping.
He got two grounders to force runners at home, then went to a 3-2 count on Navarro, but missed inside and Crawford scored the tying run. He then had another full count on Hinske, missed away, and B.J. Upton scored for a 4-3 lead.
“It’s a tough spot,” Nelson said, “but one I should have gotten out of.”
Longoria’s two-out, two-run double in the ninth stretched the margin to 6-3, sending most in the announced crowd of 12,352 heading for the exits.
They missed some drama.
The Marlins loaded the bases on three straight one-out walks against Percival in the ninth. Florida got within 6-4 on Josh Willingham’s grounder to third, which Longoria dove to keep in the infield and then flipped to second to force Cantu for the second out.
Percival walked Dan Uggla, the majors’ home run leader entering Tuesday with 23, to load the bases once again. But Jacobs grounded to second, Percival pumped his right arm in the air, and the Rays escaped.
“Good teams win ugly games,” Percival said.
Florida took the lead in the seventh—and put Olsen in position for that elusive win—on a play that seemed harmless when it began.
Jeremy Hermida drew a walk against J.P. Howell (6-0) with two outs. Cantu followed with a ball to left-center that Crawford overran a bit. The ball skipped off Crawford’s glove, Upton couldn’t grab the carom, Cantu had a double and Hermida scored without a throw for a 3-2 lead.
Florida started quickly against Rays starter Andy Sonnanstine, when Hanley Ramirez—now the NL leader in All-Star shortstop balloting—hit a leadoff double and scored on Hermida’s single. Sonnanstine settled down from there, and left after yielding six hits and two runs in five innings, striking out five and walking two.
Xtra, xtra: Sonnanstine hasn’t reached the six-inning mark in any of his last six starts— yet hasn’t lasted less than five in any of them, either (Associated Press - Sports).
Carlos Lee is doing his part to help the struggling Houston Astros break out of a long slump.
Lee hit a go-ahead two-run homer and Brandon Backe pitched into the seventh inning to stop a personal three-game losing streak, helping the Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on Sunday.
“That’s the kind of result we’re looking for,” Astros manager Cecil Cooper said.
The Astros went ahead on Lee’s two-out shot off Scott Kazmir in the sixth, and Backe and the bullpen made the 3-2 lead stand up. Jose Valverde pitched the ninth for his 18th save in 22 opportunities.
Backe (5-8) went 6 2-3 innings, allowing two runs and six hits with five strikeouts and four walks. Wesley Wright replaced Backe with two on and two out in the seventh and struck out Carl Crawford to end the inning.
“It’s nice to have a win under my belt. I know it’s been a long time,” said Backe, who won for the first time since May 23.
Hunter Pence also homered for the Astros, who took two of three from the surprising Rays after losing seven consecutive series. The Astros, who are 5-18 in their last 23 games, started the series mired in an eight-game losing streak.
“We got good hits at the right time,” Lee said. “To take two of three from this team that’s been so good at home, it’s unbelievable.”
The Rays got a two-run homer from Evan Longoria, but came up short in their bid to win 10 straight series at home. Tampa Bay, 30-13 at home, was coming off a three-game sweep of the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs.
“We had opportunities,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “You’re not going to get it done all the time. I’m satisfied with the preparation and intent.”
All three games in the series were decided by one run.
Kazmir (6-3) gave up three runs and four hits in 5 2-3 innings. He struck seven and walked two during a 106-pitch outing. The left-hander had allowed just two runs over 30 2-3 innings in five previous home starts this season.
Longoria put the Rays ahead 2-0 with his drive in the second. The rookie third baseman has 12 homers in 65 games since being called up from Triple-A Durham on April 12.
Pence, playing in right field, kept Houston close when he threw out Dioner Navarro trying to score from second on Gabe Gross’ two-out, fourth-inning single.
Pence then made it 2-1 when he opened the fifth with a solo homer. The shot ended Kazmir’s season-long streak of not allowing a homer at home at 34 2-3 innings.
“They’re a good hitting team,” Navarro said. “They can hit the ball out of the ballpark and that’s what they did today.”
Houston second baseman Kazuo Matsui left in the sixth with a strained right hamstring. He was hurt after hitting a grounder to short.
“I just had a little pain (after running to first),” Matsui said through a translator. “It’s felt tight lately. I’ll have to wait and see how it feels tomorrow.”
Xtra, xtra: Tampa Bay 1B Carlos Pena (broken finger) is scheduled to take batting practice Tuesday and could return within a week. Maddon said RHP Edwin Jackson dropped his appeal and started serving a five-game suspension for his part in Tampa Bay’s bench-clearing brawl at Boston on June 5. LHP David Price, taken first overall by the Rays in the 2007 amateur draft, is joining Double-A Montgomery. Price went 4-0 with a 1.82 ERA in six starts at Class A Vero Beach. Rays CF Rocco Baldelli (chronic muscle fatigue) will continue to DH and is adding pinch hitting as part of his rehab program this week for Vero Beach. His status will be re-evaluated next weekend. Tampa Bay optioned OF Justin Ruggiano to Triple-A Durham (Associated Press - Sports).
The Tampa Bay Rays found yet another way to win.
The hottest team in baseball won for the first time this season when trailing after eight innings, loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth before getting a two-run double from pinch-hitter Gabe Gross to beat the Houston Astros 4-3 on Saturday night.
The Rays won for the sixth time in eight games, improving to a major league-best 36-19 since April 22 and pulling within a half-game of first place Boston in AL East.
“Confidence,” manager Joe Maddon said, explaining how his young team rallied after falling behind 3-2 in the eighth. “If we can keep it close, we feel we going to do something to win it late. This is another growth moment for us.”
Houston manager Cecil Cooper turned to Doug Brocail (2-3) instead of calling on closer Jose Valverde to try to protect the lead in the ninth because Valverde had either pitched or been up throwing in the bullpen the previous four nights.
The hard-throwing Valverde finished Friday night’s 4-3 victory over Tampa Bay, Houston’s only win since June 10, with a strikeout on a 98 mph fastball. His unavailability hurt, as Brocail failed to record an out.
“There’s no excuses,” Brocail said. “I stunk up the place and we got a loss. It’s a little harder when the team’s been losing.”
The Astros have lost nine of 10, and this one dropped them into last place in NL Central.
“It’s been tough,” Houston’s Carlos Lee said. “Nothing’s going good for us. We won (Friday), but it seems like it’s so hard to win a game. Nothing is coming easy.”
Gross was the third straight pinch hitter to come through for the Rays, who got a leadoff single from Cliff Floyd. Brocail then allowed pinch-hitter Eric Hinske to single and plunked pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro with a pitch to load the bases for Gross, who sliced his double down the left-field line.
“I didn’t take a real good swing, but I got lucky,” Gross said. “Really, at that point I’m just trying to put the ball in play. Anything but an infield popup probably scores a run there.”
Lee hit a solo homer, then broke up a potential inning-ending double play to allow the Astros to take a 3-2 lead in the eighth.
Lee was 2-for-3 and drew an intentional walk from J.P. Howell in the eighth after Lance Berkman struck out, but wound up on second base when catcher Shawn Riggans could not hold onto the third strike and threw wildly past first for an error.
Berkman stole third and scored when Geoff Blum grounded into a force play, with Lee sliding hard into second baseman Akinori Iwamura. Maddon argued unsuccessfully that Lee ran out of the base path to break up the double play.
Justin Ruggiano hit his first career homer, a solo shot in the fourth, for Tampa Bay. Carl Crawford had an RBI triple in the third off Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez, who allowed two runs and five hits, walked two and struck out six in 5 2-3 innings.
Turn Back The Clock/80’s Night, along with a postgame concert featuring Kool & The Gang, drew a crowd of 29,953 to Tropicana Field, up from 14,741 the previous night for the opener of the three-game series.
The Astros wore retro rainbow uniforms from the 1980’s, while the Rays wore home pinstripes honoring the 1989-90 St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a short-lived league stocked with former major leaguers.
Rodriguez held the Rays hitless until Willy Aybar doubled down the left field line with one out in the fourth. Crawford followed from his triple to wipe out the 1-0 lead the Astros took on Lee’s 16th homer of the season.
Former Astros pitcher Dan Wheeler (2-3) got the win for the Rays.
Xtra, xtra: The Pelicans, the only team to win a Senior Professional Baseball Association championship, were presented championship rings for the 1989 season. Former major leaguer Bobby Tolan was the manager of that team and a number of ex-big leaguers, including Ron LeFlore, Steve Kemp, Lenny Randle, Joe Sambito, Ozzie Virgil, Jr., and Elias Sosa, were among those who returned for the pregame festivities. Rays outfielder Rocco Baldelli (mitochondrial disorder), who been sidelined since May 2007, reported no problem from a three-rehab trip to Class A Vero Beach. There’s good chance he’ll return there for more games after Rays officials evaluate his progress (Associated Press - Sports).
In his second crack at it, Roy Oswalt finally stopped the Astros’ losing streak. And against a team that had just swept the best team in baseball, too.
Oswalt held Tampa Bay to two runs in nearly eight innings, Carlos Lee had a two-run double and the Houston Astros snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory over the Rays on Friday night.
“Roy had it going tonight,” Houston manager Cecil Cooper said. “If you have a losing streak, he’ll be the guy to step up and stop it. He was basically in command after the first inning.”
Oswalt (6-7) allowed seven hits in 7 2-3 innings with two walks and five strikeouts.
“I didn’t put too much pressure on myself,” Oswalt said. “I just wanted to have a quality start. I threw some quality pitches and got some quick outs.”
Oswalt was coming off an outing last Sunday in which he allowed seven runs in 5 2-3 innings in a 13-0 loss to the New York Yankees.
“He pitched really well,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “He could have beaten a lot of teams tonight. He had very good command of his off-speed stuff. He was good, and that was the primary reason that we did not win tonight.”
Lee put the Astros ahead 2-0 with a two-out, two-run double in the first. He has 38 RBIs in his last 42 games.
The Rays came in having won three straight over the Chicago Cubs, a baseball-leading 46-28 after Friday’s games.
The announced attendance at Tropicana Field was 14,741, less than half what the Rays averaged during their sweep of the Cubs. During that series, the team drew a total of 97,544 fans.
Eric Hinske drove in two runs for Tampa Bay, which lost for just the fifth time in its last 30 home games.
Doug Brocail replaced Oswalt with two on and two in the eighth, and got a first-pitch grounder from Cliff Floyd. Jose Valverde gave up a solo homer to Dioner Navarro in the ninth, but got the final three outs for his 17th save in 21 opportunities.
“It’s the first time we ever faced him,” Navarro said of Oswalt. “He pitched great. They got the key hits. We were ready today, but it didn’t go our way.”
Valverde’s save was the first by an opponent at Tropicana Field since the one recorded by New York Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera on April 15.
Kazuo Matsui had an RBI double and Lance Berkman hit a sacrifice fly during a 12-pitch at-bat as Houston went up 4-1 in the fifth.
Hinske got the Rays within 2-1 on an RBI single in the bottom of the first. He made it 4-2 on an eighth-inning run-scoring single.
Tampa Bay right-hander Matt Garza (5-4) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out eight and walked two in losing for the first time in five decisions at home this season.
Xtra, xtra: Tampa Bay SS Jason Bartlett, who missed Thursday’s game after hitting a ball off his left foot in batting practice, was back in the starting lineup. Rays CF Rocco Baldelli (chronic muscle fatigue) played his third game this week as the DH for Class A Vero Beach. His rehab program will be re-evaluated this weekend. The Astros are 4-0 against the Rays (Associated Press - Sports).
Maybe it’s time to stop calling the Tampa Bay Rays surprising.
Carl Crawford sure thinks so after his second career grand slam, the biggest blow in a seven-run, seventh-inning rally, carried the Rays to an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs and a three-game sweep of the team with baseball’s best record Thursday night.
“We’ve been playing good,” Crawford said. “After winning three games like this, it’s going to be hard to argue that we’re not one of the good teams in the league.”
At 43-29, the Rays have the third-best record in the majors behind the Cubs and Boston Red Sox. They’re 14 games over .500 for the first time in franchise history and have set a club record for victories before the All-Star break.
“It validates what we’ve been doing. It does give us more confidence. There’s no question about that,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said of the sweep. “I don’t know how else I can say it. … Hopefully it’s going to catapult us even further.”
The Cubs had been the only team in the majors that hadn’t lost more than two games in a row this season. It looked as though it would remain that way when they chased Rays starter James Shields and took a 3-1 lead in the seventh.
But reliever Carlos Marmol (1-2) opened the door for Tampa Bay’s biggest inning of the season by walking the first two batters he faced, then hitting the next two with pitches to force in a run and depart with the bases loaded.
“He’s been extremely reliable. This sort of came out of nowhere,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “What are you going to do?”
Crawford hit Scott Eyre’s second pitch into the right-field stands, putting Tampa Bay ahead 6-3.
And the Rays weren’t finished. B.J. Upton tripled and scored on Eric Hinske’s double, then Hinske stole third and trotted home on Evan Longoria’s sacrifice fly.
“It’s just been a struggle. We’ve got to piece it together, and we’ve got to keep our heads up and keep going,” said Piniella, whose team returns home Friday for the start of a weekend series against the crosstown rival White Sox.
The Cubs are 3-4 since Alfonso Soriano went on the 15-day disabled list with a broken hand, but remain 3 1/2 games ahead of second-place St. Louis in the NL Central because the Cardinals dropped their third straight to Kansas City on Thursday.
“We haven’t been in a bad spell all year,” Piniella said. “Well, we’re in one right now, and hopefully at home, it will cure it and we go forward.”
Grant Balfour (2-0) pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings to get the win. It was the Rays’ third sweep of a first-place team. They also took three straight at home from Boston April 25-27 and the Los Angeles Angels May 9-11.
Sean Gallagher pitched six strong innings for the Cubs, allowing an unearned run and four hits before the bullpen let the game get away. Mike Fontenot hit an RBI double off Shields, and run-scoring singles by Kosuke Fukudome and Ryan Theriot put Chicago ahead 3-1.
Shields, returning from a six-game suspension for his role in a bench-clearing brawl at Boston on June 5, allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings. He walked two and matched a season high with nine strikeouts.
The Rays’ opening day starter has not won since beating the Angels with a one-hitter on May 9. He’s 0-3 in seven starts since, including a 6-1 complete-game road loss to the Angels in the only other start he’s made since the fight.
The Rays scored an unearned run in the second when Willy Aybar grounded into a double play. Gallagher kept Chicago close by not allowing any more damage in the inning, then wiggling out of bases-loaded jam by getting Crawford to ground out to end the fifth.
The Cubs broke through in the seventh, when Micah Hoffpauir had a leadoff double and Mark DeRosa walked. After Henry Blanco failed to get a sacrifice bunt down, Fontenot’s ground-rule double bounced over the wall in left-center, tying the game 1-all and finishing Shields.
Fukudome’s bloop single off Trever Miller drove in the second run of the inning, and Theriot’s RBI single off Balfour put the Cubs up 3-1.
Xtra, xtra: The Rays signed high school SS Tim Beckham, the No. 1 pick in this month’s baseball draft, to a minor league deal that included a $6.15 million signing bonus. The 18-year-old from Griffin, Ga., took batting practice before the game and threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Rays SS Jason Bartlett fouled a pitch off his left foot during batting practice and was scratched from the lineup. Rookie 3B Longoria made his first major league start at shortstop (Associated Press - Sports).
With every victory against contenders like the Chicago Cubs, the Tampa Bay Rays gain a little more confidence.
“It validates that we are a good team,” manager Joe Maddon said Wednesday night after the surprising Rays held off the Cubs 5-4 for their second straight win over the club with baseball’s best record.
“When you go through these situations where you’re attempting to grow—you think you’re good and you think you’re better, but you actually have to go out there and show it. It’s not about coming up short or always saying, ‘What if.’ You actually have to do it. We need confidence to do that, and we gain confidence with games like this.”
Andy Sonnanstine allowed three runs in five-plus innings and Tampa Bay’s improved bullpen shut down the Cubs for the second night in a row to help the Rays clinch their ninth consecutive series at home.
B.J. Upton, Eric Hinske, Evan Longoria and Willy Aybar provided just enough offensive support, driving in runs off Carlos Zambrano during Tampa Bay’s four-run third inning.
Zambrano (8-3) lost for just the second time in his last nine decisions. He allowed five runs and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings, departing after throwing 100 pitches. The Cubs later said he was lifted because of right shoulder discomfort.
The two-time NL All-Star will fly Thursday to Chicago, where he will see a doctor and have an MRI examination.
“At this point I don’t know nothing. We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” Zambrano said, adding that his shoulder was feeling better. “Hopefully it’s nothing bad.”
Catcher Geovany Soto motioned for manager Lou Piniella to head out to the mound after Zambrano threw his last pitch.
“He threw a pitch funny. Like weird,” Soto said. “I went out there. It was like, ‘Are you alright? What’s going on?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ I just had to call somebody because I didn’t think it was alright.”
Zambrano tried to make a case for staying in the game.
“He was convincing,” said Piniella, who appeared to be ready to allow the pitcher to continue before changing his mind. “We did the right thing getting him out, obviously.”
With 42 wins, the Rays have matched their club record for victories before the All-Star break. They were 42-45 at the break under Piniella in 2004 and wound up winning a franchise-best 70 games.
The Cubs scored twice in the third and once in the fifth off Sonnanstine (8-3), who allowed six hits and kept the Rays in front by only giving up one run after Chicago loaded the bases on a double and two walks with no out in the fifth.
Ryan Theriot, who drove in a run with a third-inning single, trimmed Tampa Bay’s lead to 5-3 when he grounded into a force play at second. Sonnanstine avoided further damage when he struck out Derrek Lee and got Aramis Ramirez to fly out to strand runners at first and third.
The Rays’ bullpen limited the Cubs to one run and three hits over the last 4 1-3 innings of Tampa Bay’s 3-2 victory in the series opener. This time, J.P. Howell and Dan Wheeler held Chicago in check until Troy Percival closed it out in the ninth.
Percival earned his 17th save in 19 opportunities to tie Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers for ninth place on the career list with 341. He gave up a leadoff homer to Soto and walked Mark DeRosa to put the tying run on first before retiring the next three batters to end the game.
“We’re a good team. Everybody knows we’re a good team now,” Percival said. “We’re not sneaking up on anybody anymore.”
Zambrano walked Akinori Iwamura leading off the first and third innings, and the right-hander paid for it both times.
Carl Crawford, back from serving a four-game suspension for his part in Tampa Bay’s bench-clearing brawl at Boston on June 5, hit a liner that DeRosa tracked down in left field only to have the ball skip off his glove for a two-base error that allowed Iwamura to score all the way from first.
In the third, Crawford doubled after Iwamura walked, and Upton, Hinske and Longoria followed with RBI singles to put Tampa Bay up 4-2. One out later, Zambrano gave up a RBI single to Aybar to fall behind by three runs.
Kosuke Fukudome drove in Chicago’s first run with an RBI double, then scored on Theriot’s single for a 2-1 lead.
Xtra, xtra: Rays OF Rocco Baldelli (mitochondrial disorder) went 2-for-3 with a pair of solo homers in his second rehab start for Class A Vero Beach (Associated Press - Sports).
Evan Longoria’s homer snapped a sixth-inning tie. The rookie’s stellar defense sealed another Tampa Bay victory and spoiled Lou Piniella’s return to Tropicana Field.
Longoria fielded Reed Johnson’s ninth-inning bunt with his bare hand and threw to first on one hop Tuesday night, preventing the tying run from scoring from third base in the Rays’ 3-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
“He put it down in a good spot, and it was just do or die,” Longoria said, adding that first baseman Willy Aybar deserved just as much credit for handling the hurried throw cleanly to end the game.
“Probably the best bunt play I have ever seen, capped off with the pick by Aybar,” closer Troy Percival said. “That ball right there, typically, is going to be bobbled just enough for the guy to be safe.”
Cliff Floyd also hit a solo homer for the Rays, connecting off Ryan Dempster in the second inning. Longoria led off the sixth with his 11th of the season, snapping a 1-all tie against Neal Cotts (0-1), who had a two-base throwing error in the seventh to set up Tampa Bay’s other run.
Grant Balfour (1-0) pitched 1 1-3 innings in relief of Scott Kazmir to get the win. The starter held the Cubs to one run and three hits in 4 2-3 innings, and the Rays bullpen limited the team with baseball’s best record to three hits the rest of the way.
“They’re a good team. I’ve seen that all year,” Dempster said. “They’ve got a real good pitching staff. They’ve got a good bullpen. They’ve got a lot of good young players.”
Percival, whose veteran leadership is one of the reason Tampa Bay is off to its best start in franchise history, worked an eventful ninth for his 16th save in 18 opportunities.
After Geovany Soto flied out on the warning track in left, The closer gave up a single to Mark DeRosa and a double to pinch hitter Kosuke Fukudome. DeRosa scored on a passed ball, and the Rays nearly blew the lead when Percival’s low pitch to pinch hitter Jim Edmonds skipped past catcher Dioner Navarro with two outs.
But the ball caromed off the backstop perfectly, forcing Fukudome to remain at third. When Edmonds walked, Johnson layed a bunt down the third base line that caught Percival and Longoria by surprise.
“He probably thought that he could get the third baseman napping a little bit,” said Piniella, the former Rays manager now in his second season with the Cubs. “As it was, the kid came in barehanded, and the first baseman made a real nice catch.”
The victory before a crowd of 31,607—a number bolstered by thousands of Cub fans relishing Chicago’s first-ever trip to Tampa Bay—was the Rays’ 41st victory of the season, one shy of their most ever before the All-Star break.
They won 42 before the break in 2004, when Piniella wound up leading his hometown team to a franchise-best 70 wins.
Piniella was with the Rays from 2003-2005, going 200-285 before being bought of the final year of his contract. It’s a move he sought because losing was wearing on him, and the 64-year-old lifelong resident of Tampa reiterated before the game that he has no regrets.
“I’m happy where I’m at right now. It’s worked out well for everybody,” Piniella said, adding that it’s great to see his old team doing well and contending in the AL East.
“We had a nucleus of good young kids here. There were areas, obviously, that the organization needed to get better at. And, they have, to their credit,” he said.
Kazmir is one of the youngsters Piniella was talking about. At 24, he’s the youngest member of Tampa Bay’s rotation and is already the club’s career leader in wins, strikeouts and innings pitched.
The left-hander held the Cubs hitless until Henry Blanco singled off the glove of diving second baseman Akinori Iwamura with one out in the fifth. After fanning Ronny Cedeno, he gave up an infield single to Johnson and the Cubs tied it 1-all when Ryan Theriot’s grounder deflected off the glove of diving first baseman Willy Aybar and bounded over the head of Iwamura for a RBI single.
Kazmir walked Derrek Lee to load the bases, but the Cubs wasted an opportunity to go ahead when Balfour struck out Aramis Ramirez to end the inning. Kazmir, who’s allowed just two earned runs and 15 hits in five home starts this season, threw 110 pitches.
Dempster threw 107 pitches in five innings, departing after allowing one run and six hits. He walked two and struck out six.
Xtra, xtra: Kazmir walked four and struck out seven. Rays LF Carl Crawford finished a four-game suspension for his part in Tampa Bay’s bench-clearing brawl at Boston on June 5 and returns to the lineup Tuesday. Iwamura is appealing his three-game suspension, which was scheduled to start Wednesday (Associated Press - Sports).
Fredi Gonzalez wanted a complete game as bad as Ricky Nolasco, so there was no hesitation in giving the young Florida Marlins pitcher an opportunity to pursue the first of his career.
“It would have been my first as a manager as well. I’ve never had one, so I guess we were both cheering hard for it,” Gonzalez said Sunday after the Marlins stopped a three-game losing streak with a 9-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Nolasco fell an out shy of going the distance, but did throw more pitches— 132—than any major leaguer this season in nearly posting Florida’s first complete game since Anibal Sanchez went eight innings in a 2-1 loss at Atlanta on Sept. 16, 2006.
The Marlins have gone 245 games since their last complete game, the longest current streak in the majors and second-longest stretch ever behind the Washington Nationals’ 261-game drought from Aug. 16, 2006 to May 31, 2008.
“Fredi gave me every chance,” Nolasco said. “I just couldn’t get that last out.”
Nolasco (7-4) allowed three runs and six hits in 8 2-3 innings to win for the sixth time in his past seven decisions and tie Mark Hendrickson for the team lead in victories. The right-hander struck out a career-high 12 and walked one.
Jacobs and Helms both homered off Edwin Jackson (4-6), who made his last start before he’s expected to begin serving a five-game suspension for his part in Tampa Bay’s bench-clearing brawl at Boston on June 5.
The victory stopped Florida’s three-game skid and prevented the Rays from sweeping the weekend Citrus Series. The intrastate foes, who’ve never truly developed a rivalry, meet again next week in Miami.
“That’s our goal, and it’s wonderful that we’re disappointed,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said of the wasted opportunity to take all three games of the series. “That’s something that hasn’t happened here in the past. The expectations have been raised.”
The Rays scored on Jason Bartlett’s RBI single in the fifth and Eric Hinske’s 12th homer in the sixth before adding an unearned run in the ninth off Nolasco, who retired the first two batters in the inning before running out of gas.
The Florida starter walked Evan Longoria and gave up a single to Cliff Floyd before being replaced by Joe Nelson. Hanley Ramirez mishandled a grounder for an error that loaded the bases, then Gabe Gross singled to drive in the other run charged to Nolasco.
The Marlins don’t expect the high pitch count to have an adverse effect on Nolasco, who is 6-1 over his his last eight appearances following a 1-3 start. His 12 strikeouts were the most by a Florida pitcher since Dontrelle Willis fanned 12 in a complete game against Philadelphia on Sept. 10, 2006.
“Normally I don’t like to push guys past 125, but he deserved the chance,” Gonzalez said, noting the Marlins have an off day Thursday, meaning the 25-year-old right-hander will have an extra day of rest between starts.
“I threw more than that in high school. I threw 188 there,” Nolasco said. “But that was only pitching once a week. … I’ll be fine, and I’ll recover fine.”
The Marlins only had five hits off Jackson, but made the most of them. The Rays starter hurt himself by walking two batters ahead of Helms’ first homer since May 17 in the second inning, and Jeremy Hermida and Jorge Cantu singled with two outs before Jacobs’ 16th homer put Florida up 6-0 in the fifth.
Florida began the day leading the major leagues with 101 homers, but had not hit one in three games. Before the stretch Helms ended, the Marlins had not gone consecutive games without a homer this season.
Cody Ross had a two-run triple in the eighth and Cantu added an RBI single in the ninth.
Xtra, xtra: The Rays stole eight bases in the series, boosting their major league-leading total to 80 (Associated Press - Sports).
There’s nothing like a strong pitching performance to squash a disagreement between batterymates.
Tampa Bay’s Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro put their differences of a week ago behind them on Saturday night, working together to help the Rays beat the suddenly punchless Florida Marlins 4-1.
“It was a huge step in the right direction,” Garza said after allowing one run and three hits in seven innings.
“We’ve always been on the same page, even when we fight,” Navarro joked, adding the pitcher and catcher having been laughing since the day after the heated confrontation they had during a loss at Texas.
“It was great, just the way he went about it tonight,” Navarro added. “We had a conversation before the game. We stuck with the plan and everything worked out for us.”
Jonny Gomes homered in his first at-bat since serving a five-game suspension for his part in a bench-clearing brawl in Boston, and Jason Bartlett’s two-run single off Mark Hendrickson (7-5) snapped a 1-all tie in the fourth inning.
Reliever Dan Wheeler worked a scoreless eighth, and Troy Percival added a perfect ninth to finish the three-hitter for his 15th save in 17 opportunities.
Garza, who had lost two straight, got into it with Navarro on the mound during a loss to the Rangers on June 6. They clashed again in the dugout after the young right-hander gave up a home run.
The Rays starter was in control from the beginning against the Marlins, who have lost three straight and are hitting .162 over their past six games.
Garza limited them to Jeremy Hermida’s fourth-inning double and singles by Matt Treanor and Luis Gonzalez. Mike Jacobs drove in Florida’s lone run with a fourth-inning sacrifice fly.
“What happened to our offense? Good pitching,” Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “When you get good pitching against you, it’s tough to swing the bat. Garza was terrific, then you get into Wheeler and Percival.”
Manager Joe Maddon urged Garza to do a better job of controlling his emotions in tight game situations and was confident his pitcher and catcher would be fine.
“I had no concern, no trepidation whatsoever. I thought it was going to good on both parts, and it was,” the manager said.
“There were times where I got a little upset,” Garza explained, “but I was able to step off, regroup and come back and get the next guy.”
Tampa Bay has won 22 of its last 25 at home, including eight consecutive series. The crowd of 31,195 was up from 19,312 for the opener of the annual Citrus Series, thanks in part to a post-game concert featuring Grammy-winning artist Gilberto Santa Rosa.
Gomes homered on the first pitch he’d faced since June 5, when he was ejected during a fight between Tampa Bay and Boston that led to the suspensions of eight players, including five Rays. The slugger rejoined the team Friday, but did not play.
The second-inning homer, Gomes’ first since May 21, was the sixth allowed by Hendrickson over his past four starts. Even though the left-hander leads Florida with seven victories, he’s dropped three straight decisions since his last win three weeks ago.
The Marlins starter failed to get past the fourth inning in two of his previous three starts, allowing 19 runs in 12 innings. He barely lasted until the fifth Saturday night.
The Rays loaded the bases on B.J. Upton’s single and two walks before Bartlett, who had been 0-for-5 with the bases filled this season, singled up the middle to drive in two runs for a 3-1 lead.
Hendrickson avoided further damage by getting Akinori Iwamura to ground out to end the inning. He threw 103 pitches in five innings, allowing three runs and four hits.
Xtra, xtra: Rays OF Rocco Baldelli, sidelined since May 2007 because hamstring problems and mitochondrial disorder, will begin a rehab assignment at Class A Vero Beach on Monday. His status will be re-evaluated after he makes starts as the designated hitter on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Baldelli remains hopeful of a return to the major leagues this year. “It’s a good step. We’ll see how it all plays out,” manager Joe Maddon said. “There’s no kind of timetable. There’s no kind of pressure involved. We just want to get him out there playing and see how he reacts to it.” (Associated Press - Sports).
Rays fans rose to their feet and cheered on Troy Percival.
Most nights, the Tampa Bay closer earns a save for a perfect ninth. This time, he gave the Rays a lift by just being back on the mound after spending the past two weeks on the disabled list with a hamstring strain.
“He’s a guy that brings a lot of veteran leadership to this team, and him being activated does a lot for our ballclub,” winning pitcher Andy Sonanstine said after the 38-year-old reliever struck out the first two batters of the ninth, then got the final out in a 7-3 victory over the Florida Marlins on a grounder to shortstop.
“I felt fine. I felt good. No problems,” Percival said.
Eric Hinske and Dioner Navarro drove in two runs apiece for the Rays, who pulled within 1 1-2 games of first-place Boston in the AL East.
Hinske’s first-inning double off Ryan Tucker (1-1) wiped out a quick two-run lead the Marlins took against Sonnanstine (7-3), who settled after a shaky opening inning to win for the first time in nearly a month.
Navarro’s RBI grounder put Tampa Bay up 5-3 in the fifth, then he added a run-scoring single off Joe Nelson in the eighth. Gabe Gross, Akinori Iwamura and Jason Bartlett also drove in runs for the Rays.
Sonnanstine, 0-2 in four starts since last winning at St. Louis on May 16, allowed three runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings. J.P. Howell and Dan Wheeler held the Marlins scoreless in the middle innings, and Percival worked the ninth despite it being a non-save situation.
“I don’t care about that any more,” said Percival, who missed 12 games while he was on the DL. “I just like to go out there and put up a zero.”
The first of six games between intrastate foes who have never developed a true rivalry drew a crowd of only 19,312 to Tropicana Field, even though both teams are off to terrific starts that have them in second place in their divisions.
It’s just the second time in the 11 seasons the clubs have met that both carried winning records into the Citrus Series.
A night after being limited to three hits in a 3-0 loss to Philadelphia, the Marlins scored twice in the first against Sonnanstine, with the first three batters of the game—Hanley Ramirez, Jeremy Hermida and Jorge Cantu—reaching base on a triple, double and single.
The Rays got the runs back on Hinske’s two-run double. They added two more in the second to go up 4-2, with Cliff Floyd scoring the first run after walking and stealing second for his first stolen base in two years.
Sonnanstine regrouped after his shaky first inning to retire 12 in a row before Cody Ross doubled to left with one out in the fifth.
“He settled down, and he threw strikes. He didn’t get himself in trouble,” Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He did a fine job.”
Alfredo Amezaga’s RBI single trimmed Florida’s deficit to 4-3, however Sonnanstine escaped further damage by getting Matt Treanor to hit a dribbler back to the mound and Ramirez to pop out to end the inning with Amezaga on second.
The Rays wiggled out of another tight situation in the sixth after Sonnanstine gave up a leadoff double to Hermida. Howell replaced the Tampa Bay starter with one out and gave up an infield single to Mike Jacobs before Dan Uggla popped to second and Luis Gonzalez flied to left.
Tucker, who pitched five strong innings to beat Cincinnati in his big league debut last Sunday, allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings. The 21-year-old right-hander walked three and struck out two.
“I’ve got to keep myself under control,” Tucker said, “try and do a better job keeping my team in the game.”
Xtra, xtra: The Rays played without LF Carl Crawford, who began serving a four-game suspension for his role in last week’s bench-clearing brawl in Boston. Rays OF Jonny Gomes returned from his five-game suspension for his part in the brawl, but was not in the lineup. Percival had not pitched since May 28. To make room on the roster, RHP Al Reyes (right shoulder tendinitis) was placed on the DL, retroactive to June 10. The Marlins’ 106-84 interleague record is the best among NL teams. They are 34-22 against the Rays (Associated Press - Sports).
John Lackey and the Los Angeles Angels ended Scott Kazmir’s six-game winning streak. The Tampa Bay left-hander was convinced that plate umpire Derryl Cousins contributed.
Gary Matthews Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero homered for the Angels in Wednesday’s 4-2 victory. But what bothered Kazmir and Rays manager Joe Maddon the most was Cousins’ strike zone.
Reggie Willits drew a two-out walk just before Maicer Izturis drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with a single in the seventh that ended Kazmir’s outing, and Maddon was ejected by Cousins after changing pitchers.
“That was unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” the 24-year-old Kazmir said. “I mean, you come into the game and some of the veteran guys are talking about an umpire that doesn’t like calling anybody out on strikes. They called him `shoe box.’ You shouldn’t change your zone just because of the count.”
There were 18 strikeouts in the game, and only two batters looked at strike three—Tampa Bay’s Willy Aybar in the fourth inning, and Matthews in the eighth.
“It’s a big advantage for a hitter if he knows that the guy’s not going to call somebody out on strikes,” said Kazmir, who pitched six scoreless innings against the Angels in a 2-0 victory on May 10 to begin his winning streak.
“As soon as Willits got up, it was like, `You can swing if you want to, but if not, just take your base. Thanks for coming. It’s all good.’ It’s like it was predetermined—like he already had it in his head what he was going to call. I thought I had Willits on the AB before that, too, and it didn’t get called.”
Maddon, who spent 31 years with the Angels and six as manager Mike Scioscia’s bench coach, has been ejected eight times in his three seasons as a manager—four times against the Halos.
“I didn’t like the calls. I didn’t like the calls at all. I was disappointed with that and I let my voice be heard,” Maddon said. “My biggest concern always is that the same strike zone is maintained throughout the game. That’s all I’m looking for—that things don’t change when it gets hot.”
The Rays were a franchise-record 13 games over .500 when they began this 3-6 road trip, which included a bench-clearing brawl at Boston and a confrontation on the mound between batterymates Matt Garza and Dioner Navarro that resumed in the dugout during a game at Texas. So it was fitting that it ended with a Maddon ejection in his old neighborhood.
“It was kind of interesting,” Maddon said. “We bonded very nicely on this trip.”
Izturis’ key hit came on Kazmir’s 117th pitch, but Maddon defended his decision to stay with Kazmir in that situation instead of going to the bullpen.
“He was the right guy for that moment, but it just didn’t happen,” he said. “Izturis was going to be his last hitter, anyway. He got him to two strikes, but Izturis has been hot and he just dumped one in there.”
Lackey (3-1) allowed two runs and four hits over 7 1-3 innings, striking out seven and walking two.
Scot Shields pitched two-thirds of an inning and Francisco Rodriguez worked a hitless ninth for his major league-leading 27th save in 28 chances. It was his 24th straight save, extending his club record.
Lackey, who had a career-high 19 wins and an AL-best 3.01 ERA last year, has a 1.83 ERA mark in six starts after spending the first 6 1-2 weeks of the season on the disabled list with a strained triceps. The right-hander is 9-1 with a 2.25 ERA in 11 career starts against Tampa Bay.
“I expected a tight game and I knew I was going to have to pitch well to win,” Lackey said. “When you’re going against a guy who’s as hot as he (Kazmir) has been and pitches as well as he has, you definitely don’t want to give in. There were some spots in there where I could have thrown fastballs, but I threw breaking balls instead thinking that one run may be the difference.”
Kazmir (6-2) allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings with 10 strikeouts and three walks. He set down the first 14 batters he faced in the rematch before Matthews Jr. drove his seventh homer into the left field bullpen on the first pitch to tie the score. Kazmir also escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, striking out Torii Hunter after intentionally walking Guerrero with runners at the corners.
Akinori Iwamura opened the game with a triple and scored on a single by Carl Crawford. Two-out walks to Evan Longoria and Aybar loaded the bases, but Navarro grounded out to end the threat.
“John doesn’t normally give up a lot of runs, and once he settles into the game and gets his tempo going, he gets really good,” Maddon said. “I liked the way we came after him in the beginning, but we needed to get more than that.”
The Rays got only one more hit until the seventh inning, when Longoria doubled to right-center to end Lackey’s string of 14 consecutive batters retired. Longoria advanced on Aybar’s groundout and scored on Navarro’s sacrifice fly, giving the Rays a 2-1 lead.
Xtra, xtra: One day after going the distance in a 6-1 loss to Jeff Weaver, Rays RHP James Shields formally dropped his appeal of the six-game suspension he received for his role in the bench-clearing brawl at Boston. Shields triggered the melee by hitting Coco Crisp, one day after Crisp angered the Rays with a hard takeout slide against Iwamura at second base. Shields will be eligible to pitch for the Rays again on June 19 in the finale of a three-game series with White Sox at Tropicana Field (Associated Press - Sports).
No punches, no angry words exchanged.
