Rays Finish Off Sweep of Angels

June 8, 2011

A: Los Angeles Angels

Attendance: 33,157

W: Juan Cruz (3-0) 3.63 ERA

Summary:

Never before had the Rays swept the Angels in Anaheim. That is until last night when the Rays finished up an impressive sweep by taking a 4-3 win in 10 innings. James Shields started and again had a very impressive outing. In the second, the Angels put runners on second and third and no one out and Shields struck out the next three hitters.

Reid Brignac touched off his first home of the year, just tucking a fly ball into the right field stands. Justin Ruggiano and Ben Zobrist later added RBI hits off the right field wall that gave the Rays a 3-0 lead.

Shields headed out for the eighth and loaded the bases with no one out. This time, Joe Maddon didn’t wait and see if Shields could get himself out of this mess. He brought in Cesar Ramos to face Bobby Abreu. Abreu responded with a three run double to tie the game.

The game went into extras. John Jaso walked and moved to second on an Evan Longoria single. Jaso stole third with Brignac up. This time, instead of going long, Brignac elected to try a short bunt. The bunt was good enough to drive home the eventual winning run. Kyle Farnsworth, who has suddenly been very busy lately, closed out the win for his 13th save.

Player of the Game: Reid Brignac. Hopefully this game will spur him on to a better offensive season than he’s had so far.