WTMY AM 1280 -  "The Sports Fanatic": Rays blow chance to sweep Yanks

Rays blow chance to sweep Yanks
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Intern Bud Bundy on 07/05/2012 16:06:00


Zach Shapiro
Rays blow sweep in top eighth, but still have promising series. – St
Petersburg, FLA
4, July 2012
The Tampa Bay Rays win divisional series against the Yankees 2-1
Tampa Bay got off to a nice rebounding performance against their biggest rival,
winning the first two games of the series 4-3and 7-4. Unfortunately, they were
unable to close out an improbable sweep.
The first game looked mirrored the Tiger series until the bottom 7 th. Matt
Moore
struggled early on, while getting no defensive help when needed. Position
fillers like
Matsui and Rymes both committed errors leading to runs scored for the Yankees,
energizing their crowed of about 15,000 at the Trop. The game looked bleak until
B.J. Upton hit a solo homer. This sparked some offense out of the Rays, as Pena
was able to go deep 2 innings later. In the end, it was the bottom 7th that
allowed
the Rays to take the first game. With a clutch double from the newly signed
utility
player, Brooks Conrad, and an error by Mark Teixeira leading to an Elliot
Johnson
single, the Rays put out the Yankee fire.
The Second game of the series had a similar opening with the Yankees going on
top
3-0 before an error sparked a Rays comeback. Jeff Keppinger also had a great hit
to
score two tying the game in one inning. After a go ahead run for the Yanks, it
was all
Rays from then on. Rodriguez hit a two run shot, followed by a Zobrist RBI
single to
win game two 7-4.
Game three however, went in the opposite direction. Just as you thought Tampa
Bay
was going to pull a miracle sweep against the A.L. east frontrunners, they blew
it.
With a three run lead going into the top of the eighth, out of control pitching
led to
the Rays demise. First, a bases loaded walk, then a bases clearing single by
Robinson
Cano to take a 4-3 lead and never look back.
Even though the Rays were unable to complete the sweep, they still showed a lot
of resiliency and fight heading into the much-needed break. They will look to
have
similar results heading up to Cleveland for a 4 game series to end the first
half of the
season.