Carlos Pena and Wade Davis frustrate the Toronto Blue Jays
Wade Davis and Carlos Pena made a mockery of the Toronto Blue Jays as they put the Tampa Bay Rays ahead of the opponents in world class fashion. Much to the disappointment of the winning side, fans turned up in Tropicana Field were in low numbers. The Ball Park had a crowd of just 11,968 supporters in the stands.
The Toronto side came in with the series squared against the Detroit Tigers. The matter turned out to be whether the squad members were going to build on some consistency in the league or were they going to go down a losing spiral. Jose Bautista has been phenomenal this season and his 42 home runs speak volumes about his dedication for the game. Still looking for a series win over a team, the ball club was probably hoping for some solid performances from their batters.
Brett Cecil came in with an Earning Run Average of 3.74. The 24-year-old left-arm pitcher has been phenomenal for the Jays thus far. He came in with 3 wins in his previous 4 games and many critics regarded the player as a threat to the Rays batting line. However, that wasn’t to be the case as the novice ball thrower faced his 7th loss of the season. He conceded 5 hits, 5 runs and a walk in his 7 innings of play. He only managed to strike out 5 hitters in his display.
The Rays, on the other hand came in with a victory over the Boston Red Sox. The series win meant they were tied for the top spot in the East Division of the American league, with the New York Yankees. Their series against the blue birds now meant the balance of table standings were on the verge of disruption.
However, the Rays had only Wade Davis to leave the task to. His 11th win for this season came in stunning fashion. While Pena’s scored hits, the ball thrower bummed the Toronto offense with an amazing exhibition of class pitching. He managed to lower his ERA to 4.29 and strike out 3 hitters for the night. He played for 7.2 innings, pitching 91 times and conceded just 6 hits, 2 runs and no walks. It was due to his amazing skills that the Tampa Bay side scored the necessary win.
The Blue Jays started the innings with bats in hands but the Rays were the first ones to get the score on the board as B. J. Upton turned the screws with the first of the game when Carl Crawford doubled to the deep centre, in the bottom 1st. Crawford eventually ran home too for the second in the same inning when Carlos Pena sprung into action with a sacrifice fly to the left. This brought up to 2 runs for Tampa Bay’s in the first inning. The Blue Birds then responded in the top 3rd when Travis Snider grounded out to the third and got John McDonald to score the first for the side.
However, the situation didn’t fan out well for the visitors because hometown hero Pena got on the score sheet again in the bottom 3rd innings. Evan Longoria and Crawford were already occupying the bases and things finally got out of the Jays’ hands as Pena connected with Cecil’s pitch and smashed a 376 feet homer to the left. The hit got a whooping 3 additional runs on the board. Tampa Bay was leading with 4 runs and the visitors didn’t respond till the top 5th when Aaron Hill banged his 20th homer of the season, 423 feet to the left centre for the Toronto side.
With the Jays trailing the Rays at 5-2, there was much to be played for but the blue birds were losing their rhythm to catch up. It wasn’t till the bottom 8th that Evan Longoria worked his magic to put the visitors out of their misery. He hit a sacrifice fly to the left and got Jason Bartlett through the last base for the 6th run of the team.
The match ended with the Rays on top and it set the series up for an amazing encounter between the two teams. It’s only to be seen if the Toronto ball blub can come up with a reasonable strategy to put their side up above the hosts.
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