Matt Moore, dominant once again, goes seven strong innings to help complete the sweep in Baltimore improving to 8-0 on the season.  Not striking out as many as usual, only fanning 3 while walking just 1, yet still effective while on surrendering 5 hits and 1 run throwing just 106 pitches and letting his fielders do the work for him.

The scoring began in the top of the third as the Rays struck first with some clutch 2 out hits.  After 2 outs Yunel Escobar managed to draw a 2 out walk off Orioles starter Chris Tillman.  Desmond Jennings, coming into the game with a four game hit streak,  quickly fell behind 0-2 but battled back to a full count.  Jennings’ battle at the plate paid off with Escobar was running on the pitch, Jennings laced a double down the left field line, scoring Escobar and giving the Rays a 1-0 lead.

During the bottom half of the frame Moore got himself into trouble as DH Danny Valencia crushed a lead-off double to left center field.  Yamaico Navarro then dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Valencia to third.  With a man on third and 1 out Moore was able to get out of the inning unscathed, getting Chris Snyder and Nick Markakis on consecutive ground outs.

The Orioles tied the game at 1 apiece in the bottom of the fourth on the heels of a lead-off triple by the red-hot Manny Machado with a misplayed ball in the outfield by Matt Joyce & Desmond Jennings.  A fly ball between them that no one called and fell out of the glove of Joyce and rolling to the wall allowing Machado to take third.  Adam Jones then laced a single past an extended Escobar for the RBI.  Adam Jones then managed to steal 2nd & 3rd as Moore failed to pay attention to the runner with the Orioles perhaps taking advantage of Jose Molina sitting today with Jose Lobaton behind the plate for the day.  Luckily Moore got out of the jam with consecutive fly ball outs.

Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead in the 5th on a solo blast by former Oriole Luke Scott, his 3rd of the season.  During the 6th inning Tampa Bay caught a break on a solo blast by Matt Joyce, his 8th of the year, on a reviewable call by the umpires as it looked like the ball may have been either foul or a double at worst.  A strange area the ball struck, according to the announcers, should have been called a double.  The Rays took a 3-1 lead at that point.

Joel Peralta & Fernando Rodney both managed a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th & 9th to shut down the Orioles.

Evan Longoria, managing just a 1-4 performance, extended his now career high hit streak to 13 games.

Up next for the 23-20 Rays is a 3 game series with the Toronto Blue Jays beginning Monday at 1:07 in the Rogers Centre as top prospect Jake Odorizzi (0-0, 0.00 ERA) takes the mound for his first start of the season against last year’s NL Cy Young award winner RA Dickey (3-5, 4.83 ERA).

Today Roberto Hernandez took the hill against Eric Stults and the San Diego Padres looking for a sweep of the 3 game series.  This is the Roberto Hernandez that Andrew Friedman and the Tampa Bay Rays expected when he was inked to a one year deal.  Today we saw a vintage Fausto Carmona like performance going six strong innings while giving up 2 earned runs on five hits while striking out four and walking two on 95 pitches.

The Rays drew first blood in the bottom of the second after Evan Longoria  walked and James Loney singled putting men on 1st & 2nd.  After a Sean Rodriguez pop out Yunel Escobar walked to load the bases for the light hitting Jose Molina.  Molina hit a deep sac fly to right field to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.  Sam Fuld ended the inning after being perhaps robbed by a great defensive play by first baseman Yonder Alonso.  Tampa Bay then threatened in the third but Stults worked out of a jam to hold the Rays at bay.

Hernandez really only got into trouble in the fourth and fifth innings.  In the fourth after a lead-off walk to Chase Headley and a single up the middle to Carlos Quentin, putting men at 1st & 2nd with no one out, Yonder Alonso lined an RBI single past the diving second baseman to tie the game at 1 apiece.  Hernandez was able to limit the damage on a broken bat come backer by Chris Denorfia, invoking a 1-4-3 double play to end the threat.

Hernandez had his second mistake of the game on a 1 out solo home run to second baseman Alexi Amarista, giving the Padres a 2-1 lead.  After working himself into a jam of men on 1st & 2nd with the shift on Escobar made a great play to stop Chase Headley’s hit and end the inning.

The bottom of the sixth is where the Rays struck again with a lead-off double by Evan Longoria.  James Loney then lifted a fly ball to right allowing Longoria to advance to third.  With one on and one out Sean Rodriguez tied the game with a bloop single to center.  Yunel Escobar then battled Padres pitcher Eric Stults, invoking a wild pitch, allowing Rodriguez to take second base.  Heads up baserunning by Rodriguez paid off as Escobar then crushed a ball to right field for an RBI double giving the Rays a 3-2 lead.  Stults then made it out of the inning and kept the Padres in the game.

The Rays bullpen took over from there as Jake McGee, Joel Peralta, and Fernando Rodney did a spectacular job closing out the 7th, 8th, and 9th, pitching as they should and giving the Rays the win.

This was a great come-from-behind win for the Rays and is encouraging coming off a walk-off win the night before.  The key to victory here was superb pitching coupled with timely hitting.  No one performance stood out today aside from the Roberto Hernandez quality start.  This was a complete team win.  James Loney also continued his hot streak going 2-4  with a solo homer in the eighth, his 3rd on the season.

Next up for the Rays is a 3 game series as the rival Boston Red Sox come to Tampa Bay starting Tuesday at 7:10 pm as John Lackey (1-3, 2.82 ERA) faces off against Matt Moore (6-0, 2.14 ERA).

Not much is going well for David Price this season, from his early innings struggles to his lower velocity.  Tonight’s game was not much better for him as he managed to go 7 innings, giving up 9 runs, 4 earned, on 10 hits while striking out 5 and walking 3.  Price has also now given up 8 home runs in 45 innings of work compared to 16 home runs in 211 innings in 2012.  It was evident early that Price did not have his fastball working as he relied more on his changeup, cutter, and curveball throughout the game.

Things started off well for Tampa Bay as Desmond Jennings led off the game with a single on the first pitch thrown by Jon Garland.  After two soft fly balls to center field, Evan Longoria hit a sharp liner up the middle just past the glove of Garland.  On an aggressive base running play Jennings hustled it out to take third.  With two outs James Loney came up looking to do some damage but was perhaps robbed of a hit by short stop Troy Tulowitzki, snagging a liner as he was slightly cheating up the middle of the infield.  During the bottom half of the frame after consecutive singles Tulowitzki knocked in the first run of the game with an RBI single that was smashed past first baseman James Loney giving the Rockies a 1-0 lead.  David Price was able to limit the damage and escape the inning finally getting catcher Wilin Rosario to pop out.

In a scary moment for the Rays, Yunel Escobar was drilled on the left wrist during his first at bat and seemed to be in pain after several minutes of being looked at by the trainers.  Joe Maddon chose to lift Escobar for a pinch runner at that point as a precautionary measure.  X-rays came back negative so far and the injury is being called a contusion.  Pinch runner Ryan Roberts moved to second base at the bottom of the inning as Ben Zobrist then slid over to take over short stop for the game.

During the top of the third the Rays offense began to come alive as Matt Joyce drew a leadoff walk.  Zobrist then made it to first on a fielders choice, hustling to beat out the throw.  Evan Longoria then singled advancing Zobrist to third.  With 2 out James Loney again came up with runners out and this time ripped an RBI double down the left field line, scoring Zobrist and tying the game at one.  With two on and two out Kelly Johnson worked the count full and fouled off several pitches for a great at bat, wearing down Jon Garland and eventually hit a 2 RBI single to right field giving the Rays a 3-1 lead.  Ryan Roberts was then caught looking, ending the Rays threat.  That was the last lead the Rays would have all night as Troy Tulowitzki would come up big again for the Rockies in the bottom of the third as he crushed a 2 RBI double over the head of Matt Joyce tying the game at 3 apiece.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the fifth when Price gave up a solo blast to dead center off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez, giving the Rockies a 4-3 lead.

The Rays began to threaten again with two outs in the top of the seventh as Ben Zobrist drew a 2 out walk and advanced to second on a balk by the pitcher.  Evan Longoria, batting .409 with RISP this year, worked the count full but was eventually called out on strikes on a questionable call over the inside corner.

Price pitched solid until the bottom of the seventh inning where it all began to fall apart.  After 2 quick outs Carlos Gonzalez singled to center.  Tulowitzki, again coming up big for his team, smashed a hard hit ball to Longoria at third.  Longoria managed to knock the ball down but threw wide of first allowing Gonzalez and Tulowitzki to take second and third.  Michael Cuddyer then hit an infield single to short, allowing Gonzalez to score.  Price then gave up a walk in a big spot to catcher Wilin Rosario, loading the bases for the red-hot rookie third baseman Nolan Arrenado.  Arrenado put the game out of reach absolutely crushing a 1-1 pitch over the wall in left center for a grand slam, giving the Rockies a 9-3 lead and effectively putting the game out of reach.

The Rays began to threaten in the top of the ninth putting two men on base but nothing came of that as the Rockies bullpen closed the door.  After the Rockies starter left the game after 5 innings of work Colorado’s bullpen stepped up pitching 4 innings of shutout ball allowing only 4 baserunners for the Rays.

This was not a good loss for the Rays especially after last night’s amazing come back win.  The lone bright spot may have been James Loney’s 3 for 4 night raising his batting average to .380.

The Rays close out their three game series in Colorado tomorrow at 4:10pm as Alex Cobb (3-2, 2.55 ERA) looks to get Tampa Bay back on track against a fresh off his DL stint Jhoulys Chacin (3-0, 1.46 ERA).