Tampa Bay Rays defeat Baltimore Orioles 8-5 – MLB Spring Training
Tampa Bay Rays defeated Baltimore Orioles 8-5 at the Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida on Sunday, April 1 in their Grapefruit League encounter of the 2012 Major League Baseball Spring Training Session.
Rays’ leadoff hitter Desmond Jennings looked in outstanding form as he collected a solo shot and a Grand Slam off Baltimore’s pitcher Wei-Yin Chen in his first two trips to the plate. The Striker later added a solo shot off closer Kevin Gregg in the seventh
inning to help the Rays rally past their opponents in a close spring game.
"I felt good from the first at-bat," Jennings said. "I felt like I was seeing the ball good and I was swinging at good pitches today. ... I was swinging at pitches in the zone and hitting them on the barrel and I was getting to pitches inside. That's a good
sign for me. So hopefully I can keep that up."
Chen, who had a successful career in Japanese League, started for the fifth time this spring. He held Minnesota Twins to just one runs over five innings earlier this spring but allowed seven runs on six hits in five innings and had no place to hide on Sunday.
He will be hoping to learn from his mistakes to put up solid numbers in the upcoming regular season. Rays’ hitter Evan Longoria hit his second homer of the season in the fifth innings.
"I'm working on my off-speed pitch, my changeup a lot and also my timing is important for me right now, so I'm still working on my timing and delivery," Chen said.
Joe Maddon and his team have looked a bit out of sorts since the start of 2012 Spring Training. There were a great number of expectations from the Rays before the start of this spring. However, it will be fair to say that they have not been able to live
up to them, losing 16 out of their 25 spring games. It will be interesting to see if Tampa Bay Rays can learn their lessons to bounce back strongly during the regular season.
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