Tampa Bay Rays beat New York Yankees 7-3 to stay on top of AL East – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays showed great fighting skills as they beat New York Yankees 7-3 at Yankee Stadium in New York, NY on Thursday, June 7 in the finale of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Handling the pressure absolutely brilliantly, the Rays avenged their loss to New York in first two games of the series in an emphatic fashion. Jose Lobaton had an RBI single to right in the second inning to score the first run for Tampa Bay.
Starting pitcher David Price had another excellent outing as he struck out eight. He was sent to the dugout in the fifth after his confrontation with Yankee’s hitters Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. Although Price struggled to find his rhythm, he struck-out two of the most dangerous hitters in Yankees’ lineup to become the American League leader in wins.
"That's not the position that I want to be in against anybody, especially against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium," Price said in a post game interview.
"David was outstanding. He only threw five innings, but it was almost like he threw a complete game," Maddon said. "The at-bat with A-Rod. Curveball, curveball, curveball, curveball. Strike three was incredible. Just an outstanding performance."
Ben Zobrist singled to centre in the third and the Rays took a crucial 2-1 lead in the third. With momentum on their side, the Rays continued to attack their opponents. B.J. Upton hit a sacrifice fly and Drew Sutton earned an RBI double to give the Rays an impassable 5-1 lead in the fifth.
Sutton took complete advantage of Matt Joyce’s error in the ninth and Elliot Johnson doubled to deep left centre to make the score 7-2. For the Yankees, Chris Stewart grounded out to second to help Nick Swisher level score in the second inning.
Raul Ibanez had an RBI single to centre in the eighth and Russell Martin added a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth but Joe Maddon and company held on to their lead without any trouble to tie with Baltimore Orioles at the of American League East Division standings.
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