The Tampa Bay Rays got a tough win over the Baltimore Orioles yesterday at Tropicana Field with the Rays victorious 7 to 6. It was a huge win that rooters with Rays tickets aren’t likely to forget.
Rays pitcher Lance Cormier (3.23 ERA) got the win, while Chris Ray (6.65 ERA) took the loss for the Orioles. Jeff Niemann went 3.1 innings for the Rays, allowed 7 hits, one home run and 4 earned runs with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. Also pitching for the Rays was Andy Sonnanstine (6.84), Brian Shouse (4.73), Dale Thayer (4.22), Randy Choate (3.74), and Dan Wheeler (3.36). The Orioles’s starter Mark Hendrickson went 6 innings, allowed 3 hits, 3 home runs and 3 earned runs with one walk and 3 strikeouts. Matt Albers (5.77), and Danys Baez (4.13) also pitched for the Orioles. With the win, Cormier’s record goes to 3-3, while Ray drops to 0-4. Grant Balfour earned the save for the Rays, bringing his saves up to 2.
In addition to the 7 runs, the Rays put up 7 hits and committed 2 errors. It wasn’t a huge day for anyone at the plate for the Rays, as nobody managed more than 2 hits. Matt Wieters had the most hits for the Orioles (3), followed by Jeff Fiorentino (2), and Melvin Mora (2). Michael Aubrey could not get much going at the plate as he left 9 runners on base. The Orioles mustered 6 runs, 13 hits and no errors.
Umpiring duties were performed by Jerry Crawford, Phil Cuzzi, Mike Estabrook and Chad Fairchild. There were 10,352 Rays ticket holders in attendance at Tropicana Field.
The win puts the Rays at a record of 80-76, (20.5 games behind the division leader), while the loss brings the Orioles to 60-96, (40.5 games behind first place in the division). The Orioles will try to get a game back from the Rays tomorrow. There are still plenty of tickets available so take a look.