A nervy David Price sets the right mood for a Tampa Rays victory
The Tampa Rays faced their first relief since the last 5 games as they went into the match, tonight against the Detroit Tigers. The team made it to the victory stand when the Bullpen completed their hard work on taking the sting out of their rivals. A nervy David Prince played 5 innings to jump start things for the team in the new series. The series came right off a bad run for the Florida based team, when they faced losses against the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays in their previous games.
The Detroit Tigers, on the other hand, faced their opponents after a win over the Los Angeles Angels. That victory came after a 4 game consecutive loss. Looking to beat their opponents, the team was wishing and hoping for a start to a winning streak as the squad lays low on morale due to just 6 wins since July 16th.
David Prince came off the game with a compelling 15 wins and 5 losses record for the season. Into the game, the pitcher threw 115 times and struck out 9 players. The player, however, allowed 2 runs off 5 hits and 4 walk offs. The Earning Run Average came off as 2.84 for the Rays ace man, after the match. The pitcher crossed the hallmark record of 14 game wins, reaching 15, surpassing the accomplishments of James Shields, Edwin Jackson and Rolando Arrojo. About his performance, Prince summarizes, “It's a great honour to set a record like that. ...that's an awesome feeling. I just have to make sure I don't leave it stuck on 15.”
The Tigers, however, used Armando Galarraga for the pitching duties today. The player has featured in 8 games over the years and has won only 3 of those starts. The pitcher was hit 5 times, of which 4 runs were made. He struck out just one player and allowed 4 walks in his 90 ball throws.
The game started off with the Tigers hitting the first scoring run. When Gerald Laird hit a double down the deep centre as Carlos Guillen scored after making a sprint from the second base. This brought the first number on the board, in the end of the bottom 2nd. However, the lead didn’t last for long as Rays’ hitter, Matt Joyce got into full swing, as he smashed a 389 feet homer down the right end for the team’s first run. As the inning continued, Jason Bartlett got a boost from a walk and he went on to score later off a sacrifice fly by Ben Zobrist for a single. This brought in 2 runs for the team on the board at the end of the top 3rd.
Tampa Rays went on to register another run in the top 4th, while Joyce hit a sacrifice fly this time, to the centre, allowing Evan Longoria to score the third for the ball club. Longoria was involved again in the top 5th as he doubled to the centre and gave Zobrist the ample space required, to score the 4th for the Rays. Detroit responded as R Santiago scored off Ryan Raburn’s single to the centre, contracting the lead to 2, in the bottom 5th. Further response was felt in the bottom 8th as Brennan Boesch kept the Tiger’s hopes alive by blasting a 363 feet homer to the left.
Unfortunately for the Detroit side, the game wasn’t there to be, as the top 9th saw B. J. Upton score off John Jaso’s single to the centre. The player boomed past the last base after sprinting from the third to give the team a 2 lead margin back. The game was finally put away by Carl Crawford’s single to the left, as Jaso got to score the 6th for the team.
In hindsight, the game was a display of two different teams, in terms of size and squad reputations. For what was believed to be a subtle fight turned out to be one as Rays’ relievers; Chad Qualls, Joaquin Benoit and Rafael Soriano came up the pitching rest ladder to secure the win for the team. One can only wonder what will happen tomorrow when the teams meet again.
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