Rays blow chance to sweep Yanks

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.