David Price fires as Tampa Bay Rays defeat Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 – MLB Update
The Tampa Bay Rays comprehensively overcame the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 on Wednesday, June 22 at the Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The win completed a 2-1 series victory for the Rays who won the first game 8-4 on June 20 before falling to the Brewers 5-1 on June 21.
The Brewers opened the scoring impressively with Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart adding one run each in the first innings of the game to establish a solid two-run lead.
Rays didn’t stay back for long and levelled the score in their second innings riding on a 353-feet Casey Kotchman homer and a Kelly Shoppach run. This was Kotchman’s third home-run of the season, taking his career tally to 52.
The third, fourth and fifth innings passed quietly with the hitters failing to plunge runs before action picking up again in the sixth and seventh innings. The sixth and seventh innings combined yielded four runs for the Rays with three coming in the seventh
alone.
Sean Rodriguez scored one in the sixth before the Rays gained momentum and added three in the seventh backed on Elliot Johnson’s 402-feet third homer of the season. Sam Fuld added one run for the Rays before Shoppach scored his second for the night.
With the score at 6-2 after the seventh, the Brewers had little left to play for. The only resilience came in the ninth innings when Prince Fielder, the first baseman for Brewers added one run. It had little meaning other than consolidation for Brewers at
this stage of the game.
The Tampa Bay Rays dominated the pitching as well with their starting pitcher David Price striking-out 10 Milwaukee hitters in eight innings, conceding just five hits and two runs in the course. He pitched at an ERA of 3.51 and won his eighth game of the
season, taking the win-loss record to 8-6. Kyle Farnsworth supported Price well as the relief pitcher.
Price, clocking in at 96 mph on the radar, said, "Yeah, that was awesome. I got some on my pants. I played today."
Brewers were hit with a blow when their starting pitcher Marcum had to leave the game in the fourth inning with an apparent hip injury. Marco Estrada came in as relief pitcher but couldn’t live up to the job which the Brewers required. He pitched at an ERA
of 4.72 for three innings and recorded his fifth loss for the season opposed to the solitary win. It was Tim Dillard’s pitching which allowed the Rays to score three runs in one inning and take the match away from the Brewers.
The Rays are now 41-34 for the season, just better that the Brewers who are at 41-35. Tampa Bay come out strong from the series and has a chance to build on this momentum and carry on the hard work.
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