David Price helps Tampa Bay Rays rout Toronto Blue Jays 9-4 in series finale – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays crushed the Toronto Blue Jays 9-4 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario on Sunday, September 2 in the finale of their four match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Rays dominated their opponents in every aspect of the game on Sunday to split the four match series. In some ways, it was an important win for the Rays as it will keep them in the playoff race.
The offence in particular executed the game plan to perfection. Evan Longoria put Rays on the board with an RBI doubled to deep left in the first inning. Ben Francisco hit his third home-run of the season in the second to double Rays’ lead 2-0. With momentum
on their side, Joe Maddon and his men continued to put pressure on their opponents.
"I'm really proud of the way we've handled all of these moments," manager Joe Maddon said. "I know we lost some really harsh games and it's easy to go away after those loses and we didn't go away."
"This is going to be a race to the end," outfielder B.J. Upton said.
Jose Molina, Desmond Jennings, Ben Zobrist and Jeff Keppinger made valuable contributions with the bat as Rays scored six runs in the second inning. Carlos Pena smacked a home-run to centre in the third and Francisco earned an RBI groundout to deep centre
in the fourth to deny Blue Jays any chance of coming back into the contest.
Starting pitcher, David Price put up another masterful performance on Sunday to lay the foundations of a memorable Rays’ victory.
"They've done a good job all year hitting for me, especially early in the game, it makes it a lot easier for me to go out there and try and pound the strike zone," he said. "The offense did a great job of putting up a lot of runs."
He gave up just six hits and two runs in six plus innings to grab his 17th win of the season. Relief pitcher Burke Badenhop continued the good work in the seventh and the eighth to leave Toronto in a hole.
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