Starting pitching again ruled the day as the Tampa Bay Rays dropped their second game to the Atlanta Braves, 3-1. In an outing that played out like a chess match, Tampa’s James Shields put up a valiant effort, but in the end succumbed to Atlanta’s Grand Master, Tommy Hudson. The game was rain-delayed but apparently not long enough to inspire the 10-run shellacking the Rays tuned the Braves up with Tuesday night. I suppose the duration of a given rain delay needs to stretch at least into an hour to get the offense primed.
Those tuning in on Sun Sports may have heard announcer Brian Anderson talk about Hudson’s propensity for getting hitters to ground out and he delivered as advertised, getting 15 outs on ground balls, including a double play. Hudson also picked off B.J. Upton at first and nearly did the same to Carl Crawford, who ended up getting caught stealing. Atlanta’s ace gave up only one run on four hits, with Crawford scoring on Carlos Pena’s two-out single in the fourth inning. One run through four innings may not seem like much but it’s a windfall in games like this one. The Rays weren't able to build off of it, however, as Jason Heyward hit a deep home run in the bottom of the frame to squash any potential momentum. The Braves got to Shields twice more in the sixth to take the lead for the remainder of the game after manager Joe Maddon intentionally loaded the bases and Braves 1B dropped a hit just out of Ben Zobrist's reach in shallow right. To be honest, he made bad contact on a good pitch from Shields, but sometimes that's the way things happen.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.