Tampa Bay Rays lose to Baltimore Orioles 0-1 despite James Shields’ heroics – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays suffered an embarrassing 0-1 loss against the Baltimore Orioles at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Tuesday, October 2 in second game of their three match series.
Orioles lost to the Rays 3-5 in the opener, looking short of confidence. Manager Buck Showalter was expecting his men to regroup and fight back in Game 2. That is exactly what they did on Tuesday evening, dominating their American League East Division rivals
in almost all departments of the game.
Baltimore’s pitching rotation executed the game plan to perfection, shutting-out the red hot Rays’ batting line-up. Starting pitcher Miguel Gonzalez produced a match winning performance as he struck-out seven batters in six plus scoreless innings.
Rays will be disgusted with their batting effort on Tuesday evening. With home conditions working in their favour, they had an excellent chance to wrap up an impressive series sweep against Baltimore but that did not turn out to be the case.
Starter James Shields gave up just two hits and one run in his first complete game of the season. Striking-out a season high fifteen batters, he showed just what he is capable of. However, Rays’ batters were unable to take advantage of his heroic effort
and the Orioles held on to their one run lead to level the series 1-1.
"I knew this was my last game and I wanted to let it all hang out. I wanted to end on a good note, end on a bang," Shields said. "That was probably the best game of my career."
"He's a pretty good hitter. I think that was probably the farthest home run I've ever given up in my career," Shields said. "I sent the bat boy over and told him to tell him, 'Can you hit it any farther?' Just joking around a little bit. He said something
like, 'I'm sorry. I'll go and try and hit it 480 feet next time.'"
Manager Joe Maddon will be very frustrated at the outcome of the game. Surely, he will be expecting the Rays to learn from their mistakes to turn things around in the finale.
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