Tampa Bay Rays defeat Texas Rangers 8-4 – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays defeated Texas Rangers 8-4 at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas on Friday, April 27 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball Regular season.
Evan Longoria, once again, showed his class, temperament and composure as he hit a 409 feet home run to the centre to help the Rays take a crucial 3-0 lead in the first. With bases loaded B.J. Upton and Jeff Keppinger single to increase Rays’ advantage to 4-0. Ben Zobrist also played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash.
"Against a team like this," said Tampa Bay’s starter James Shields, "you have to score runs early."
"We've been on a nice little streak," Shields said. "We wanted to get this series started off right."
Texas fought back brilliantly in closing stages of the contest but that did not prove to be enough as they lost by four-run margin.
"It was the most intense 8-4 game you're ever going to find in April," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.
"They came out swinging the bats and scored some runs early," Rangers manager Ron Washington said.
"That's the way it goes," Matt Harrison said after losing his first start of the season. "Tonight, they just had my number."
Joe Maddon and company have looked in absolutely outstanding form since the start of the season. The Rays thrashed New York Yankees 3-0 in their first series of the season and they have not looked back since then. With their win over the Rangers on Friday evening, the Rays improved their win-loss record to 13-7.
Dominating the mighty Rangers in almost all aspects of the game, the Rays will be very feeling very confident about their game play right now and it will be interesting to see if they can continue their domination throughout the series to give Texas some taste of their own medicine.
Rangers, on the other hand, will be disappointed to lose the opener as they allowed their rivals to gain winning momentum. With just five defeats and 15 wins, they are the team to beat this season.
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