Rays Defeat Jays Again
Posted August 25, 2009 11:16 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Carlos Pena hit a pair of two-run homers and James Shields won for the second time in his past seven decisions as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 7-3 on Tuesday.
Both of Pena’s home runs came against Toronto starter Brett Cecil. The Tampa Bay slugger leads the American League with 37 homers.
Toronto second baseman Aaron Hill hit his 30th home run of the season in the third inning and rookie Travis Snider hit his sixth homer of the season before a crowd of 17,307 at the Rogers Centre.
Rookie left-hander Cecil (5-3) allowed six hits and six runs, five earned, in 3 1/3 innings.
Shields (8-10) allowed eight hits and three runs in 6 2/3 innings.
The Rays, the 2008 American League pennant winners who are in the hunt for the wild-card spot, have won the first two games of the three-game series. They have defeated the Blue Jays in 11 of the 14 games between the teams this season.
The Blue Jays scored a run in the first inning as Marco Scutaro’s led off with a single, stole his 10th base of the season, took third on a ground out and came home on Adam Lind’s single.
But the Rays quickly took the lead in the second inning when Pena’s first homer of the game followed Pat Burrell’s leadoff single.
Pena’s second homer of the game put the Rays ahead 6-1 in the third. It scored Evan Longoria who reached base on third baseman Jose Bautista’s error.
Jason Bartlett started the inning with a single and Ben Zobrist walked. Both scored on Burrell’s single to left as Longoria went to third. Burrell was thrown out trying for a double. That brought up Pena who also hit a two-run home run against Roy Halladay to end a 6-6 tie in Tampa’s 12-7 win on Tuesday.
Hill’s home run came with one out and the bases empty in the bottom of the third. John McDonald took over for him at second base in the seventh.
Cecil allowed a hit and a walk in the fourth before Josh Roenicke took over and gave up a walk to load the bases before striking out the next two batters to keep the score 6-2.
Roenicke walked Dioner Navarro with two out in the fifth, and Gabe Kapler and Gabe Gross followed with singles to add another run for the Rays.
Scott Downs, who has been on the disabled list with a toe injury, pitched the eighth inning, his first outing for the Blue Jays since Aug. 1.
Notes: Toronto will start Marc Rzepczynski (2-3, 3.65 earned-run average) in Wednesday’s third and final game of the series against Tampa Bay’s Scott Kazmir (8-7, 6.17 ERA)Cecil and Rzepczynski are scheduled to be shut down after making starts at the beginning of September as they approach the limits for innings pitched between their stints in the minors and Toronto Tampa Bay left-fielder Carl Crawford did not start in Wednesday’s game and is listed as day-to-day with a stiff lower back that forced him to leave in the third inning of Tuesday’s game. He is likely to miss Wednesday’s game as well .
