Rays Offense Hot, David Price Dominant In 8-2 Win

The Tampa Bay Rays (21-15) ended the Cleveland Indians' (23-12) home winning streak on Wednesday night, pummeling the Tribe in an 8-2 win. David Price (5-3) pitched 8 strong innings, maintaining a perfect game through the first 4 while striking out 7 and walking none. For the Indians, Carlos Carrasco (1-2) struggled mightily in his first game back from the DL. He walked 3 batters and allowed 6 hits for 4 runs in only 5 innings of work.

The Rays scored early, pushing a runner across on a 2nd inning double from Sam Fuld and then 3 more runs in the 4th. With Price controlling all his pitches and both sides of the plate, the game nearly felt over by the 5th inning.

The Tribe was eventually able to pry 2 runs off a tired Price in the 8th inning, but by the bottom of the Rays had already built an unsurmountable 8-2 lead. Rob Delaney pitched a quiet and quick 9th inning, and the Rays took their 21st win. They have one more game in Cleveland before returning to Tropicana Field on Friday.

Notes from the game:

• Evan Longoria took a pitch off his upper-back, near the armpit. The beaning looked painful as he jumped in the air and laid still on the ground for a few moments. Fortunately, he finished the game and did not appear to suffer any ill effects from the hit.
• Ben Zobrist hit his 8th home run, a towering blast to the right field bleachers. In the next inning, Matt Joyce did the same, hitting his 5th homer. Both Zobrist and Joyce have been displaying a potent blend of power and patience and continue to be major cogs in the Rays 2011 offense.
• Sam Fuld broke out of his mini-slump, going 3 for 4 with a double and a steal. He also made some decent plays in the outfield, including a quick throw on an Asdrubal Cabrera double that nearly had the Indians shortstop out at second.

David Price Hopes To Be The Anti-Sonnanstine, And Cool Off The Red-Hot Indians

The Rays and their 8 game road winning streak became the latest victims of the buzzsaw that is the Cleveland Indians. By winning last night the tribe earned their 14^th consecutive home win.

How did they do it? To put it briefly: bases on balls. Eleven walks is far too many to give up and expect a victory, and the Rays didn't get a victory. Andy Sonnanstine made the spot start and had quite a poor outing, so in game two, Rays fans are hoping their ace can clear away any memories of the disaster that was last night.

David Price will toe the rubber and try to hand the Indians just their third home loss of the season. He’s coming off of a phenomenal start where he went deep into the game, striking out 10 and giving up a mere 4 hits. And for those who are concerned about the Rays pitching giving up too many walks of late (23% of their season total in the last 3 games), Price has a mere 1.63 BB/9 coming into the game. Joe Maddon will be hoping Price can once again help the bullpen out by going deep, as we have become accustomed to seeing.

First pitch is at 7:05, and hopefully the last pitch will be earlier than it was last night when the game went past midnight.