Tampa Bay Rays secure an epic 9-8 victory – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays showed great determination, fighting spirit and mental strength to secure an epic win against Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland on Sunday, May 13 in the finale of their three match series of the 2012 Major
League Baseball regular season.
In some way, the win will be of great importance for the Rays who had lost the first two games of the series. Both the Rays and the Orioles entered the series with the 20-12 win-loss record and the series was expected to be a very tight one.
Baltimore used the home conditions to great effect as they secured a nail biting 4-3 win in the opener to dent their opponents’ confidence levels. Similar pattern of play was observed in the following game with Tampa Bay putting up a brave fight but unable
to cross the winning line. With momentum and a 2-0 lead in their hand, the Orioles were certainly the favourites to win the series but Joe Maddon and company had other ideas.
"On the last play, it seemed (Rodriguez) fell a little bit and he had to get something on it and obviously Carlos was there to pick him up," said Johnson. "(Pena) has a Gold Glove for a reason."
"This team never gives up," Wieters said. "We had a chance in the ninth and just didn't come through. It would have been a nice game to win, but at the same time you know this team is going to keep playing hard and we're not out of any game. That's how we
feel in this clubhouse."
The Rays made an aggressive start to the game with Elliot Johnson, Ben Zobrist and Carlos Pena displaying some high quality hitting skills. Matt Joyce, Pena and a Zobrist made wonderful contributions in the fourth to give the Rays a handsome 7-1 lead and
it seemed they will cruise to an easy win to avoid three game series sweep.
However, the Orioles fought back brilliantly late in the game with Matt Wieters, Nick Markakis and J.J reducing Rays’ lead to 7-6. Both Johnson and Zobrist homered to left centre to seal an emphatic win and improve Tampa Bay’s record to 21-14.
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