It was another one of those games Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, as the Tampa Bay Rays looked to avoid a sweep at the hands of the visiting Baltimore Orioles. This game wasn’t as close as starting pitcher Wade Davis’ new haircut; he was charged with four earned runs on eight hits and the loss before having his head shaved post-game for the Cut for a Cure event. His team managed one run on four hits — for the third straight game — in support of the right-hander.
“They’ve got a good lineup," Davis said. "They’ve always had a good lineup… you make mistakes to good hitters and they’ll get you.”
Davis got in trouble early but not often, yielding a base hit to Brian Roberts, who led off the first inning. A one-out walk issued to Derrek Lee advanced Roberts to second, allowing him to score on the two-out single by Matt Wieters.
The Rays managed to tie the game in the bottom of the third, as Matt Joyce and Sam Fuld – in for the injured Johnny Damon – led off with back-to-back walks. B.J. Upton popped the ball up but the Orioles’ defensive miscues in shallow right field led to a dropped ball; Fuld was thrown out at second on the fielder’s choice. Elliot Johnson’s base hit brought Joyce around to score.
Baltimore starting pitcher Zach Britton was sharp but not masterful, allowing the 1 run on 3 hits, walking 3 batters while striking out 6. As a team, the Rays have managed only a single run on four hits each of the last three games; is this really only a matter of being out-pitched?
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2011.