Seattle Mariners edge Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 – MLB Update
Seattle Mariners edged the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Saturday, July 21 in second game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Rays’ offence was unable to convert some easy scoring chances and Seattle was quick to take advantage of their opponents’ errors. It will be very interesting to see if the Mariners can prevail in the finale as well to secure a rare series win at Tropicana
Field.
Centre-fielder Michael Saunders provided the Mariners with a dream start as he singled to left in the first inning. Left-fielder Casper Wells and catcher John Jaso scored to put their side 2-0 ahead.
Jose Lobaton’s RBI single to right-centre in the seventh inning kept the Rays’ hopes alive but the Mariners were good enough to hold on their one run lead to seal an emphatic win. Rays’ starting pitcher Alex Cobb was dominant but took his fourth loss after
giving up three hits and two runs in just two innings.
"Right in between the fibula and the tibia," Cobb said. "Fortunately, it got all muscle, no bone, so there's no fracture."
"That's been our biggest problem this year, the inability to win some close ones based on being able to score the runs we needed to," Rays’ manager Joe Maddon said.
"It starts with Jason Vargas," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said if Vargas, who allowed just one run in six plus innings. "Didn't quite have the command he normally does, but he didn't give into it, either."
"I was able to make pitches when I needed to," Vargas said.
Rays’ Manager Joe Maddon will be an extremely worried man these days. After putting up a solid show in first half of the season, it seems the Rays are losing their way completely.
It is very obvious that the Rays are paying the price for their lack of concentration and self belief. Maddon and company held their nerves in a thrilling encounter in series opener 4-3 and they were hoping to cross the winning line without any problems
on Saturday evening but the Mariners had other ideas.
Tags: