Tampa Bay Rays crush Minnesota Twins 7-3 to complete series sweep – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays crushed the Minnesota Twins 7-3 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Sunday, August 12 to complete an impressive series sweep.
Manager Joe Maddon will be extremely pleased with what he seen from the Rays after the All Star break. With eight wins in their last ten games, the Rays have shown some real signs of improvement over the last few weeks.
Their win in the finale also lifted them to second place on the American League East Division standings table and it will be interesting to see if they can maintain this excellent form to make it through to the playoffs.
"I believe in all these guys," manager Joe Maddon said. "I like the energy with which we're playing."
"Everybody has an opinion on where he should have thrown the ball, but I'm going to back my player here," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He did what he thought was right."
Desmond Jennings provided the Rays with a superb start as he hit a solo home-run to left centre in the first inning to open the scoring. Jeff Keppinger also made the most of available opportunities, adding a solo home-run to left in the second to stretch
Rays’ lead to 2-0.
"Today was a grind," he said. "Our defense wasn't there, but we've had good defense since the (All-Star) break and are playing well."
Starting pitcher James Shields had another decent outing as he gave up just three runs in seven solid innings to lay the foundations of his team’s extra inning win.
"It's good to have one every once in a while," Jennings said. "I thought he was going to try to turn a double play."
For the Twins, Justin Morneau connected for a two run monster in the second and Joe Mauer earned an RBI single to left centre to put his team 3-2 ahead.
Sean Rodriguez’s double in the fifth inning helped the Rays level score and push the game into the extra inning. Keppinger, Matt Joyce, Jennings and B.J. Upton made valuable contributions to help Tampa Bay score four runs in the tenth to wrap up a memorable
victory.
Tags: