- Tampa Bay Rays/Skip Milos
- Courtesy photo
And so it begins.
In his first at-bat in Saturday’s matinee, Evan Longoria cracked a double and picked up his first RBI of the year.
His second at-bat?
Having sat a few weeks with a strained left oblique, the Rays’ recently-returned third baseman drove the 1-1 pitch deep to left and out for a three-run shot.
In two swings of the bat, Longo showed the world he was back.
The two hits accounted for half of the Rays’ offense in the 8-2 win against the Baltimore Orioles Saturday afternoon.
With the big bat back in the lineup, starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson was able to do his thing, combining good stuff with a slow heartbeat.
Hellickson pitched himself into a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the second frame. The O’s took the Iowa young’un for 30 pitches in the frame. Luke Scott grounded into a 4-3 to lead off. Adam Jones singled and Matt Wieters and Mark Reynolds walked back-to-back to load the bags.
Out No. 2 came via a swinging third strike from Robert Andino. Hellickson got Brian Roberts to pop to short to end the threat.
This kid must piss ice cubes.
Not to be overshadowed, Ben Zobrist had his first career four-hit game out of the two-spot; while not racking up any RBI, Zorilla scored three of the Rays’ runs Saturday.
This article appears in May 19-25, 2011.