- Kevin Tall
- Damon on deck; stock photo
After a tough, walk-off loss in extras the night before, the Tampa Bay Rays looked to take one back from the Toronto Blue Jays Saturday afternoon. They turned to ace lefty David Price, who threw eight impressive innings in the 6-4 win.
Dangerous right-hander Brandon Morrow took the hill for Toronto. Morrow, a strikeout machine, laid down a nasty outing against the Rays last August; he threw a career-high 17 strikeouts—the most by any MLB pitcher in 2010—in a no-hit bid that Evan Longoria broke up with a two-out single in the ninth inning. Morrow struck out the side in the top of the first Saturday, but not before the Rays put two runs on the board. Sam Fuld walked to lead off and scored when Johnny Damon cracked a home run to right on the 3-1 pitch from Morrow to take an early, two-run lead. Following, Matt Joyce, Ben Zobrist and B.J. Upton went down in succession.
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.