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These were the kind of big plays and big pitches the New York Yankees needed from Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte.
Jeter delivered with his bat and glove, backing a determined effort by Pettitte that sent the Yankees past the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays 5-0 Tuesday night.
“People make a big deal, obviously, because it’s Tampa,” Jeter said. “Every game is big. We just so happen to be playing them.”
Playing smartly, and perhaps with a sense of urgency, the third-place Yankees avoided falling 9 1/2 games behind Tampa Bay. The Rays, with the best record in majors, lost two in row for the first time since June 10-11.
“We know they are a good team. They can make a run at any time,” Rays outfielder Carl Crawford said. “But it doesn’t matter who we lose to. It’s just a loss and we try to forget it and move on to the next game.”
Coming off two tight wins over Boston, and about to head into the All-Star break, the Yankees counted on two of their veterans to turn back the young Rays.
“We knew the importance of the game,” manager Joe Girardi said.
Jeter lined an early go-ahead double off All-Star Scott Kazmir, then made a stellar, spinning play in the seventh inning that preserved a two-run lead and prompted a sellout crowd to chant his name. Pettitte needed little other help in pitching eight sharp innings.
“It was a big game for us,” Pettitte said. “These guys are ahead of us. They’re playing with a lot of confidence.”
Rays manager Joe Maddon noted before the first pitch the increased attention on this two-game set created “an October feel.” He said his team would merely treat it as another series—the Yankees, in their 90th game this season, saw it as chance to make up ground.
Pettitte (10-6) returned to form, giving up only four hits and walking none. He was focused from the start, often standing with his glove in front of his face, even while Tampa Bay hitters stepped out of the batter’s box.
Pettitte was hit hard by Boston in his last outing and called that performance “horrible” and “terrible.”
This time, the Rays barely had a chance as Pettitte improved to 15-4 lifetime against them. Pettitte retired the first two batters on two pitches, and was on his way.
When Tampa Bay had a late glimmer of hope, Jeter extinguished it.
Down 2-0, Tampa Bay put runners at the corners with two outs in the seventh. Willy Aybar hit a grounder in the hole that Jeter tracked down, and the All-Star shortstop jumped, spun and made a strong toss from several steps onto the outfield grass that forced out Dioner Navarro at second base.
“I knew I had a chance,” Jeter said after his signature play. “As long as you get to it quick and get rid of it quick.”
Pettitte wildly waved his left fist in celebration, and several of Jeter’s teammates waited to salute their captain near the pitcher’s mound.
“That was the possibly the game-changer,” Tampa Bay’s B.J. Upton said. “Runs were definitely hard to come by tonight. We had a chance to score there, and maybe get a couple more.”
The crowd of 53,089 broke into a chant for Jeter, and cheered him again when he singled and slid home on Bobby Abreu’s double in a three-run eighth.
Reliever Edwar Ramirez pitched a hitless ninth for New York.
Kazmir (7-4), who will be back at Yankee Stadium next Tuesday for the All-Star game, started in impressive fashion. He struck out Jeter and Alex Rodriguez while fanning seven of the first 10 batters.
At that point, it looked like “he’s going to strike out 20,” Pettitte said.
Jeter came up with runners on second and third with two outs in the third, and hit a drive to right-center field for a 2-0 lead. Abreu followed with a single to center field, and Upton’s one-hop throw cut down Jeter at the plate.
Kazmir struck out nine. He has won just one of his last six starts.
Melky Cabrera, who struck out three times against Kazmir, hit a solo home run in the eighth off Gary Glover and Robinson Cano had an RBI single.
Xtra, xtra: Upton threw out his ninth runner this season (Associated Press - Sports).
A stroke of good luck by Carlos Pena wasn’t quite enough for the Tampa Bay Rays.
After Pena hit a tying solo homer off All-Star closer Joakim Soria in the ninth, the Royals struck back with 10th-inning home runs by John Buck and Mike Aviles for a 7-4 win Monday.
The loss snapped the Rays’ seven-game winning streak. Tampa Bay, with the major’s best record at 55-33, lost for the second time in the last 13 games. The Rays went 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
“Today was a tough day for us,” Pena said. “We couldn’t capitalize.”
Pena nearly salvaged a bad day with his home run off Soria, who blew his second second save in 25 chances.
“You know it’s going to happen at some point in time,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said. “That fastball caught just a little too much of the plate. It was kind of right in Pena’s nitro zone and he got it out of the ballpark.”
Billy Butler reached second to start the 10th on a throwing error by Rays third baseman Evan Longoria. Pinch runner Esteban German advanced to third on Mark Teahen’s grounder. After Dan Wheeler (2-4) intentionally walked Ross Gload, Buck lined his fourth homer of the season down the left-field line. Two pitches later, Aviles homered to make it 7-3.
“I hit it good and the way it was hooking, it made me a little nervous, but it stayed true just enough,” said Buck, who turned 28 on Monday.
“That’s what happens when you miss your spots,” Wheeler said. “I didn’t make my pitches and it cost us the game.”
Soria (1-1) also allowed Eric Hinske’s solo homer in the bottom of the 10th.
Aviles had three hits and David DeJesus had three hits and two RBIs for the Royals, who avoided being swept in the four-game series.
“It was good to see us battle back,” Hillman said.
Carl Crawford started in center for the first time since June 18, 2006, and his lack of hustle helped the Royals take a 3-2 edge when Ross Gload singled up the middle in the third. Crawford failed to charge the ball and Mark Teahen scored from first, never slowing down en route to the plate.
“I think I got a little lackadaisical,” Crawford said. “I didn’t think he was running. Then I looked up … and it was too late by then. It was just a bad effort on my part. I probably could have gotten to the ball a little quicker. I was doing my normal thing that I do in left, and forgot I was in center. You’ve got to be a little more aggressive in center.”
Crawford moved over from left to center because center fielder B.J. Upton was given the day off. Crawford made a nice catch going back toward the warning track on Billy Butler’s drive in the fifth.
Royals starter Gil Meche gave up two runs and seven hits with four walks and five strikeouts in 5 1-3 innings. Tampa Bay’s Matt Garza allowed three runs and nine hits over 6 2-3 innings.
Hillman rested outfielder Jose Guillen and second baseman Mark Grudzielanek, who has body soreness. Guillen went 0-for-10 in the first three games of series.
The Rays finish the first half of the season with two games at the Yankees and four in Cleveland against the Indians.
Xtra, xtra: Crawford became the ninth player since 1900 to reach 300 steals before the age of 27 when he swiped second base in the first. Crawford, who turns 27 on August 5, joined Rickey Henderson, Ty Cobb, Tim Raines, Vince Coleman, Cesar Cedeno, Clyde Milan, Eddie Collins and Sherry Magee in accomplishing the feat. Rays reliever Al Reyes (right shoulder) could be reinstated from the 15-day disabled list right after the All-Star break. Longoria has 18 RBIs in his last 14 games (Associated Press - Sports).
Evan Longoria might be playing himself onto the All-Star team.
Longoria hit a two-run homer during a four-run third inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays went on to pummel the Kansas City Royals 9-2 on Sunday for their seventh straight win.
“There’s a sense of calmness in our dugout,” said Longoria, one of five players the fans will vote on to fill the last American League All-Star spot. “It’s incredible the things we’re doing here.”
James Shields (7-5) gave up two runs and four hits over seven innings to win his third consecutive start. He struck out eight and walked one.
The Rays, with the majors’ best record at 55-32, have won 11 of 12 overall. Their seven-game winning streak is the second-longest in team history; Tampa Bay won 12 in a row in June 2004.
“Right now, we’re trying to put together a run and keep it going,” Shields said.
Esteban German drove in both runs for the Royals, who have lost seven of nine.
Carlos Pena drove in two runs on a two-out double and Longoria followed with his two-run homer off Luke Hochevar (5-7) that gave Tampa Bay a 5-2 lead in the third. Longoria has five homers and 17 RBIs in his last 13 games.
“Right now he’s playing with a lot of confidence,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s really not a surprise. This is what he’s capable of doing. As the league learns him, and then he learns the league back, there’s going to be some give and take going on. But I think you’re going to see this kind of performance for many years to come.”
Longoria’s 16 homers this season are tied with Kansas City’s Bob Hamelin (1994) for the second-most by an AL rookie before the All-Star break in the last 20 years.
“Just to be included in that list is awesome,” Longoria said of possibly making the All-Star team. “I really didn’t think coming down the stretch that I was going to get any kind of voting or any kind of mention. It was a good overall day for me.”
No Tampa Bay player was picked to start for the American League, but manager Terry Francona chose left-hander Scott Kazmir and catcher Dioner Navarro to help fill out his roster.
“We need to recognize that they have the best record in baseball, and we tried to do that,” Francona said from New York, where his second-place Red Sox were preparing to play the Yankees.
“We can’t correct voting. You know, at some point, if their fans want them to be on the team, they’re going have to step up and vote. That’s the way it goes. But also, I think we have a responsibility to respect how they’ve played.”
Tampa Bay went ahead 7-2 on B.J. Upton’s two-run double in the fourth. Gabe Gross added a solo homer and Carl Crawford a sacrifice hit to make it 9-2 in the sixth.
“They’re hot. They’re confident. You can’t make that many mistakes,” Kansas City manager Trey Hillman said.
German put the Royals up 2-0 with a two-out, two-run single in the second.
Tampa Bay loaded the bases with no out in the bottom half but scored just once on an RBI grounder by Ben Zobrist. Hochevar then induced an inning-ending double-play grounder from Gross.
Hochevar allowed seven runs and nine hits in four innings. He has given up 13 runs over 10 innings in his last two starts.
“I feel like I just didn’t do a good job moving the ball around,” Hochevar said. “I’ve got to do a better job of pitching. Change speeds, move the ball in and out.”
Xtra, xtra: The Rays are 36-13 at home this season. They have won 11 of the past 12 series at Tropicana Field. Maddon said closer Troy Percival (left hamstring) may not be ready to return immediately after the All-Star break. Rays CF Rocco Baldelli, who hurt his groin while on a rehab assignment for chronic muscle fatigue, is not ready to resume playing in minor league games. He’s working out with the team (Associated Press - Sports).
When Andy Sonnanstine takes the mound, the Tampa Bay Rays expect to win.
Sonnanstine pitched seven strong innings, Ben Zobrist homered again and the Rays beat the Kansas City Royals 3-0 Saturday night for their sixth straight win.
“You ask our players, I know we always feel we have a really good chance to win on the night that he pitches,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “So you get this extra feeling about you. There’s certain pitchers that players play behind and they feel this guy is going to win somehow, and that matters. He’s one of those guys.”
Sonnanstine is just the third Tampa Bay pitcher—joining Rolando Arrojo (1998) and Scott Kazmir (2006)—to have 10 wins before the All-Star break.
Zobrist homered for the third game in a row as the Rays increased their AL East lead to a season-high four games over second-place Boston. Tampa Bay has won 10 of 11.
Sonnanstine (10-3) won his fourth consecutive decision. He allowed five hits, walked one and struck out two.
“He throws strikes with all of his pitches,” Tampa Bay pitching coach Jim Hickey said. “He competes extremely well, and he’s a winner.”
J.P Howell pitched the eighth inning and Grant Balfour worked the ninth for his third save.
“It feels great,” Sonnanstine said. “I’ve got to give a lot of the credit to the bullpen.”
Akinori Iwamura put the Rays ahead 2-0 with a two-out, two-run double in the second off Zack Greinke (7-5). Royals center fielder Joey Gathright made a dive and just missed catching the ball.
“They capitalized on some big at-bats,” Greinke said.
Zobrist homered in the seventh.
Royals right fielder Jose Guillen, involved in a heated exchange with Kansas City pitching coach Bob McClure in the clubhouse before the game, went 0-for-4 and struck out twice.
Guillen and McClure argued face-to-face, but no punches were thrown before players and coaches separated them. Guillen, who unleashed a profanity-filled tirade against his teammates in May, declined to comment on the incident.
Guillen knocked over chairs during the confrontation. Tempers flared after Guillen made a comment about coaches—he then told McClure he wasn’t talking specifically about him.
“It’s been handled in house and honestly,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said after the game. “It’s a non-issue. It’s not a big deal. It’s not going to characterize anybody.”
Guillen, after the game, did talk about the surging Rays, one of his former teams.
“You got to give them credit,” Guillen said. “They’re for real. They’re playing good baseball.”
McClure also declined comment about the dustup with Guillen.
Kansas City’s David DeJesus went 0-for-4, which stopped his career-high hitting streak at 16 games.
The announced attendance was 30,418, which moved Tampa Bay’s home attendance over the one-million mark. It is the second fastest the team has reached the mark, trailing only the Rays’ inaugural season of 1998.
Xtra, xtra: Maddon thinks his team will have just one or two players named to the AL All-Star squad. “If you take a team to the All-Star game, you’d take us,” Maddon said. “But you take individuals. That’s the way this thing works. I’m not going to cry about it, and I hope nobody else does. It’s just the way it is." Tampa Bay RHP Al Reyes (right shoulder) threw a 28-pitch simulated game. He could be cleared to start pitching in minor league games this weekend (Associated Press - Sports).
The Tampa Bay Rays surged to first place without the offensive production they’re accustomed to getting from Carlos Pena. Now that he’s back in the middle of the lineup, the AL East leaders are counting on him to help them stay on top.
Pena homered for the first time in a month and drove in five runs Friday night, supporting a strong pitching performance by Edwin Jackson and pacing an 11-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
The Rays slugger spent most of June on the disabled list with a broken left index finger. He returned from a 19-game layoff last weekend at Pittsburgh, however his bat had been relatively quiet during his first six games off the DL.
“I feel great. My finger is feeling a lot better every day,” Pena said after going 2-for-4 to raise his batting average to .227 with 12 homers and 43 RBIs.
“Any time you can contribute, your confidence gets a boost. That’s obviously what we all need. When you’re confident up there, good things happen. You start expecting good things to happen.”
Pena hit .282 with 46 homers and 121 RBIs last season, when he was the AL Comeback Player of the Year. His average has not been above .250 this season, and Friday was only his eighth multi-hit game this year.
“It’s a nice start. You always like to see that. It’s huge to get him back,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “I’ve been saying this all along that, as we get deeper into the season, that there’s a lot of guys who haven’t had their typical season, and they will.”
Jackson (5-6) matched his win total for last season, limiting the Royals to David DeJesus’ first-inning single and Mark Grudzielanek’s solo homer in the seventh before giving up two singles and an unearned run in the eighth.
Tampa Bay won for the ninth time in 10 games, improved baseball’s best record to 53-32, and maintained a three-game lead in the division over second-place Boston, which beat the New York Yankees 6-4.
The Rays are a franchise-record 21 games over .500. Before this year, they had never been more than four games over at any point in a season.
The Royals have lost five of seven. They contributed to Tampa Bay’s fifth straight win with three errors, three walks and a wild pitch that led to runs.
“We made it real easy,” Kansas City manager Trey Hillman said. “They’ve got a good club, obviously, with the best record. But we did a lot of things really poorly that made their job a little easier.”
Pena’s first homer since June 3 was a three-run shot off Brian Bannister (7-8) that made it 7-0 in the fifth. He also had a RBI single in the first and a sacrifice fly in the third against the Kansas City starter, who allowed seven runs and eight hits in five innings.
Jackson didn’t get his first win in 2007 until June 24. The 24-year-old right-hander was 1-9 after losing to the Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 4 and finished 5-15 with a 5.76 ERA in 31 starts.
Thanks to a pair of double-play grounders, Jackson faced the minimum 18 batters through six innings. Grudzielanek hit his third homer of the season with one out in the seventh.
DeJesus led off the game with a single, extending his hitting streak to a career-best 16 games before Grudzielanek grounded into a double play. DeJesus drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, when Alex Gordon hit into an inning-ending double play.
B.J. Upton and Cliff Floyd had sacrifice flies during Tampa Bay’s three-run first. Pena’s sacrifice fly made it 4-0, then the slugger’s first homer since returning from a stint on the disabled list with a broken left index finger blew it open.
“It seemed like every ball they hit found a hole,” Bannister said. “It seemed like every ball we hit found a glove.”
The Rays added four runs in the eighth, two of them on Carl Crawford’s third single.
Jackson allowed two runs and four hits, including eighth-inning singles to Mark Teahen and Ross Gload. Teahen scored from third base on a passed ball.
Xtra, xtra: Attendance was announced as 16,830, down from the 33,768 the Rays averaged for their three-game sweep of Boston this week. Rays SS Reid Brignac made his major league debut and went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a walk. Tampa Bay is the only team since 1900 to have the best record in the majors on July 4 after finishing with the worst mark in baseball the previous season. The 1967 Cubs are the only other team that’s held it after July 4, holding the the best record as late as July 24. Rays RHP Al Reyes (right shoulder tendinitis) will pitch a simulated game on Saturday (Associated Press - Sports).
There’s no secret to the success of the Tampa Bay Rays this season. Good pitching, solid defense and timely hitting carried them to the top of the AL East standings.
The same winning combination is keeping them there.
Evan Longoria went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs and B.J. Upton made a “Willie Mays-esque” catch in center field to help an improved bullpen hold off Boston 7-6 Wednesday night for Tampa Bay’s second three-game sweep of the World Series champions this season.
“It’s a really good feeling. I can’t tell you that I expected it—I’d be lying—but right now … we do expect to win on a nightly basis,” manager Joe Maddon said after the Rays improved the best record in baseball to 52-32.
They did it Wednesday night by rallying from a three-run deficit in the seventh inning, extending their lead in the division to a franchise-best 3 1/2 games over the second-place Red Sox, who matched a season high with their fifth consecutive loss.
Tampa Bay is 6-0 at home against Boston, which has swept a pair of three-game series from the Rays at Fenway Park.
“It reaffirms to us that we can play against these guys and we can beat the Red Sox,” Maddon said. “Now we have to prove that we can beat them in Fenway Park also.”
Longoria had a RBI single off Daisuke Matsuzaka in the first inning, and his two-run double off Craig Hansen (1-3) was the big blow in a six-run seventh and gave the rookie 15 RBIs in his last 10 games.
Jason Bartlett also had a two-run single in the seventh, making it 7-4 and setting off chants of “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!” among the crowd of 36,048, the Rays’ fourth sellout of the season and just the 12th in the club’s 11 seasons.
Gary Glover, the third of four Tampa Bay pitchers, allowed one run in 1 2-3 innings for the win.
The Red Sox made it interesting in the ninth for the third straight night, pulling within 7-6 on Kevin Youkilis’ sacrifice fly, which Upton ran down to make the catch on the warning track with his back to the plate.
“I actually had no idea where the wall was. The only thing on my mind was catching that ball,” Upton said. “I didn’t think it was hit that well. … It just kept going and going, and I stayed with it.”
Maddon called the catch, robbing Youkilis of an extra-base hit and maybe preventing the tying run from scoring from first base: “Magnificent. … Willie Mays-esque.”
“Not many people make that play,” Maddon said.
Boston still had a chance, though, until Mike Lowell was caught stealing second when Jason Varitek swung and missed on a hit-and-run play.
Dan Wheeler then struck out Varitek for his third save in as many opportunities.
Dustin Pedroia went 4-for-5, finishing a single shy of becoming the first Boston player to hit for the cycle since John Valentin in 1996. He homered in the first off Scott Kazmir, then tripled and scored in the third and doubled and scored in the fifth while helping the Red Sox build a 4-1 lead.
Pedroia, 25-for-44 during a 10-game hitting streak, flied to center in the sixth before delivering a two-out RBI double off Glover that trimmed Tampa Bay’s lead to 7-5 in the eighth.
With Boston carrying their longest losing streak in more than two months to New York for a four-game series against the Yankees, Pedroia found little consolation in becoming the first Red Sox second baseman to have four extra-base hits.
“This series, they played better than us. They pitched better than us. They hit in the clutch better than us,” Pedroia said. “That’s why we didn’t win any games.”
The Red Sox wasted scoring opportunities in the second and fourth against Kazmir, and wound up paying for the lack of production. The Tampa Bay starter escaped both of those jams with help from Boston’s Julio Lugo.
Lugo grounded out with runners at second and third to end the second, then was called for interfering with shortstop Bartlett trying to break up an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the fourth.
Jacoby Ellsbury beat the relay to first, allowing a run that would’ve put Boston up 3-1. But Lugo stood up as he was sliding wide of second base to hinder Bartlett’s throw, and Ellsbury was ruled out—denying the run and ending the inning.
Pedroia led off the fifth with a double, then scored on J.D. Drew’s triple. Two outs later, Drew hustled home on Kazmir’s wild pitch to make it 4-1.
Bartlett began the Tampa Bay seventh with a double off Manny Delcarmen. He stole third and scored on Akinori Iwamura’s RBI single. Carlos Pena drew a bases-loaded walk from Hansen to cut Boston’s lead 4-3 before Longoria’s double put the Rays ahead.
“We missed a lot of opportunities to spread the game out,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “But still saying that, we had a lead … got to Delcarmen, and things unraveled in a hurry.”
Xtra, xtra: Rays reliever Al Reyes, out since June 10 because of right shoulder tendinitis, is progressing and may throw batting practice this weekend (Associated Press - Sports).
The Tampa Bay Rays are taking a business-as-usual approach to their position atop the AL East.
Matt Garza pitched seven strong innings in his first outing since throwing a one-hitter, and the Rays beat Boston and nemesis Tim Wakefield 3-1 on Tuesday night to extend their lead in the division to a season-best 2 1/2 games over the second-place Red Sox.
“We go out there against Boston fully expecting to win,” reliever Grant Balfour said. “We’re not shocked to win a ball game. It’s really no surprise to us.”
Garza (7-4) allowed an unearned run and five hits, and Dioner Navarro snapped a fourth-inning tie with an RBI single off Wakefield (5-6), whose 19 career victories against Tampa Bay—nine at Tropicana Field—are the most by an opposing pitcher.
The Rays have won seven of eight, improving the best record in the major leagues to 51-32. They are 5-0 at home against the Red Sox, who have won all six games the teams have played at Fenway Park this season.
“These guys aren’t like they used to be,” Wakefield said. “They’re pretty good over there.”
The Rays have done it with good pitching, improved defense and timely hitting. They have also avoided getting caught in the highs and lows they have experienced during the best start in franchise history.
“It’s still a long road, and we have to take it day to day,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said.
Balfour got the last four outs, working out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth and striking out three in the ninth, including Jason Varitek to end the game with the tying run on second base.
The Red Sox, struggling offensively without injured slugger David Ortiz in the middle of the lineup, have lost four straight for the first time since May 11-14.
Tampa Bay’s 2 1/2 -game lead in the division is its largest of the season, and Boston’s deficit is its biggest since they were three back on April 9.
“I don’t really care to talk about who we’re missing. We showed up to win and they outplayed us,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “That’s what matters to us. … Regardless of who you have out there, you either win or you don’t.”
Garza was coming off the first complete game of his career, the one-hitter over the Florida Marlins in which he gave up a homer to Hanley Ramirez leading off the seventh inning.
Although the 24-year-old right-hander wasn’t as sharp this time, he did retire the first nine batters before Jacoby Ellsbury beat out a dribbler and continued to third when Navarro, the Tampa Bay catcher, picked up the ball and threw wildly past first.
J.D. Drew drove in Ellsbury with a sacrifice fly, but he and Manny Ramirez could not deliver with a runner in scoring position when the Red Sox—trailing 2-1—threatened again in the sixth.
Garza worked out of the jam by getting Drew to pop to first base and Ramirez, who’s just 10-for-54 in his last 16 games, to foul out to first to end the inning.
The Red Sox squandered an opportunity in the eighth when they loaded the bases on an error and two walks.
Balfour replaced J.P. Howell with two outs and walked Ramirez to fill the bases, then escaped when Mike Lowell—who had been 5-for-10 with two homers, two doubles and 18 RBIs with the bases loaded this season—grounded to shortstop.
Blafour earned his second save in as many opportunities. After striking out Kevin Youkilis and Brandon Moss to begin the ninth, he gave up a double to Alex Cora and the fanned Varitek.
“They made what we gave them count,” Francona said. “We had very few opportunities, and we couldn’t cash in.”
The Red Sox stranded eight runners and were 1-for-7 with men in scoring position—and that hit didn’t advance anyone.
Varitek entered the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth, and was 0-for-2, making him 0-for-his-last-13. He’s 3-for-34 in the past 14 games.
“I’ll eventually figure it out,” Varitek said. “I’ve just absolutely stunk. There’s no two ways around it. I have to find a way.”
The loss was the fourth in 23 decisions against Tampa Bay for Wakefield, who is 9-2 lifetime at Tropicana Field. While he only allowed two runs and five hits, he hurt himself with two costly wild pitches.
The Rays scored an unearned run in the first when Carl Crawford raced home on the knuckleballer’s wild pitch after shortstop Cora’s two-out fielding error kept the inning alive. Another wild pitch led to their second run, with Evan Longoria moving up to second before Navarro’s RBI single snapped a 1-all tie in the fourth.
Navarro delivered another run-scoring single to make it 3-1 in the eighth.
Xtra, xtra: The Rays placed RHP Troy Percival on the 15-day DL after the game. He tweaked his left hamstring in the ninth inning Monday night. It’s his second trip to the DL this season with a hamstring problem (Associated Press - Sports).
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).
These were the kind of big plays and big pitches the New York Yankees needed from Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte.
