Tampa Bay Rays fight past Cleveland Indians 4-2 to level series – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays fought past the Cleveland Indians 4-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Tuesday, July 17 in the second game of their four match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Starting pitcher Matt Moore won for the sixth time this season after he gave up just three hits and two runs in five solid innings, improving his ERA to 4.39.
"Matty was not really sharp with his fastball command," Maddon said. "Breaking ball was kind of a moot point, it was pretty much getting outs with his fastball when he could."
"I wasn't going the distance I needed to go tonight, but pitching out of jams like that does take a lot out (of you)," Moore said.
"We couldn't do much offensively," Indians’ manager Manny Acta said in a post game interview. "I thought we had enough traffic out there. Just couldn't execute. Just couldn't get that hit to get us over the hump."
It was an important win for the Rays in more than one way. Joe Maddon and company had lost more often than not over the last few weeks and the win can build on some much needed confidence.
The Rays will also have an excellent chance to grab one of the wild card spots if they can continue to give similar results on a regular basis. It will be interesting to see if the American League East second placed Tampa Bay Rays can end the season in the
same fashion as they started.
Carlos Pena showed just what he is capable of as he homered to right in the first inning to give the Rays complete control of the situation. Pena is averaging just .198 with the bat this season and he will be looking to bring some consistency into his game-play
to win back his skipper’s trust.
Luke Scott helped the Rays put their opponents under a lot of pressure with a triple to right in the first inning. Jose Lobaton singled to right in the sixth inning and Desmond Jennings scored to restore Rays’ two run lead that lasted until the end of the
game.
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