James Shields shines as Tampa Bay Rays defeat Kansas City Royals 4-0 in second outing – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays’ starter James Shields had a terrific day with the ball, as he tossed a complete game to defeat the Kansas City Royals 4-0 in the second game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, August 9 to take 2-0 lead in four-game series.
The 29-year-old hurler struck-out eight batters and allowed only three walks and six hits over nine innings to get his eleventh win of the season. It was the fourth shut-out and eighth complete game of the year by right-hand pitcher.
"I didn't think I was going to get one complete game," Shields said. "I hadn't had one since 2008, so I was just hoping for one this year. Fortunately, for me, it has been a lot. I'm really, really happy with the way I've pitched this year and hopefully
we can get a couple more here."
He allowed six hits, but all the allowed hits were singles and it added one more win with a full game in this season. Five of his eight games in 2011 regular season are against the teams having a losing record.
Evan Longoria drove in an RBI double in the first to lead the game off with a positive attitude. Longoria also launched an alluring homer against the Royals’ starter Jeff Francis in the sixth inning.
Jeff allowed all of the four runs over his seven innings, in which he yielded five hits and four earned runs over 80 pitches. Having another bad outing, he lost his twelfth game of the season. His loss record has elevated to 12 with a 4.54 ERA in 24 games
in 2011 season.
Despite having such a bad record, the only positive thing for him in this game was some appreciation from the right fielder Jeff Francoeur, who encouraged struggling Francis.
"It wasn't really a matter of me being really bad," Francis said. "I hit a guy, [give up] a bunt hit and I leave a changeup up to Longoria and he whacked it."
The Royals have a 4-15 record in last nineteen games and manager Ned Yost was not present in the most of these games. In such a situation, Royals will be looking for some miracle in the coming games.
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