Tampa Bay Rays defeat Miami Marlins 3-0 at Tropicana Field – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays defeated Miami Marlins 3-0 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday, June 17 in the finale of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Joe Maddon and company displayed some top quality baseball skills in a game that proved to be very low scoring.
Although Tampa Bay won the series comprehensively, they are still three games behind American League East Division leaders New York Yankees, who have a mighty 40-25 record.
The competition at the top of the table is going to be fierce and the team that performs well under pressure will stand tall at the end of the season.
It will be very interesting to see if the Rays can build on much needed confidence to reclaim the number one place on AL East standings.
Marlins, on the other hand, were unable to live up to the expectations in two out of their three road trip games.
"Today was, like, the uncanny ability first-pitch curveball strike," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "You put that in the hitter's head, then combine that with the great changeup, fastball where he wants to. He was really, really good."
"I felt great the last three outings, Cobb said. "(This) turned out to be one of my better outings."
"You can not win games with two base hits ... nothing going on," Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said in a post game interview. "Seems like when you're not scoring and you're not hitting, I don't saying we are, feels like flat."
B.J. Upton provided the Rays with an excellent start as he hit a home run to left in the first inning to give his side a crucial 1-0 lead. Drew Sutton had an RBI single to centre in the sixth inning to double Rays’ lead to 2-0.
Ben Zobrist also made his present felt at the home plate as he singled to left in the seventh to score the third and final run for his team. Starting pitcher Alex Cobb tossed seven solid innings and gave up just no run on a two hit ball.
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