James Shields shines as Tampa Bay Rays defeat New York Yankees 2-1 – MLB Update
The American League’s Tampa Bay Rays romped to a 2-1 triumph over the New York Yankees in the rubber game at the Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg on July 21, to tie the four-game series at 2-all.
The Rays’ starter James Shields overpowered the strongest rival Carsten Charles Sabathia to write the Rays 52nd win of the season. The 29-year-old not only outclassed the Yankees’ starter but also snatched his first win of the month. The right-hand
hurler held the Yankees’ strong batting line-up scoreless until the eighth inning. Besides this run, he allowed only six hits and walked three batters along with six strike-outs in just over seven innings.
"That was a good battle. It's nice to come out with a win, especially after what happened last time we faced each other in New York," Shields said. "Any time you face CC, you're going to go through a battle. Fortunate for us, we got just enough runs to win
the ballgame."
Entering the game for his 22nd start of the season, the left-hand pitcher faced a blow on his 31st birthday of the season. Sabathia lost his first game since July 9 after seven straight wins, including three shut-outs, one of which
was against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 10.
Sabathia allowed two runs on five hits and walked four batters over his eight innings. His eight strike-outs went to waste after few wobbly pitches. Sabathia now has 14-5 record with 2.62 ERA in 161.2 pitches in the 2011 MLB season.
"It's one of those of things," Sabathia said. "It's baseball."
Evan Longoria launched a 397-feet long one-run homer off Sabathia in the bottom of the first inning. Then Sam Fuld tripled to deep-right to gather the second run of the game to take his club into a 2-0 lead.
"When you look at his night, he really only made two mistakes. The curveball to Longoria and the slider to Fuld and that was it," Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi said. "Unfortunately we only got one tonight."
The Rays’ were looking to gather their shut-out win but the Yankees’ wounded slugger Robinson Cano scored an RBI single off Shields to reduce the losing margin by one. However, the Rays’ closer Kyle Farnsworth tossed a perfect ninth inning and struck-out
three batters to grab his 19th save of the season.
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