Jeremy Hellickson was introduced to the Port Charlotte crowd in the fifth, pitching a scoreless inning. Returning from a tight hamstring, one inning was enough. "He threw 10 pitches -- nine fastballs and one curve, of which six were for strikes," according to mlb.com's article on Hellickson.
The sixth was pitched by Kyle Farnsworth, who surrendered a homerun which could not be blamed on a windy day - one of three earned runs. Joel Peralta also had a messy inning in the seventh, but gave up no runs thanks to great defense by Jose Lobaton, who dove to catch the runner at the plate in a safety squeeze.
Adam Russell pitched an eighth inning to great success with two strikeouts and one hit, but returned in the ninth to give up three hits and the Pirate winning run without recording an out.
Other Notes:
- In the 9th, with runners on the corners, Dane De La Rosa faked a pick off to first and then got the base runner out at third in the ninth. Had he stepped on the rubber this move would have been illegal. He followed up with one hit and one strikeout.
- Wade Davis gave up seven hits today, although two could have been recorded as errors by Felipe Lopez, who seemed lazy today at third base.
- The Rays recorded 4 Runs in the sixth with one out remaining. Jose Lobaton scored Stephen Vogt and Robinson Chirinos on a single to left, Russ Canzler followed up to bring Loby home, and Daniel Mayora singled in Chris Carter who walked earlier in the inning.