ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Tampa Bay used small ball to take a 4-0 lead over the Philadelphia Phillies after six innings Thursday night as the Rays tried to even the World Series at a game apiece.
Run-scoring groundouts by Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria put Tampa Bay ahead in the first against Phillies starter Brett Myers, B.J. Upton added an RBI single in the second and Jason Bartlett drove in a run with a squeeze bunt in the fourth.
Philadelphia went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position in the first three innings against James Shields, dropping to an astounding 0-for-19 in the Series. Shane Victorino finally stopped the streak in the fourth with an infield hit that failed to drive in a run – the 0-for was three shy of the record at the start of a Series, set by the Los Angeles Dodgers against Baltimore in 1966.
ries win. He didn’t have a 1-2-3 inning after the first, but the Phillies were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position through six innings and stranded eight runners. That dropped them to 1-for-24 with 18 LOBs in the Series.
Myers gave up four runs – three earned – six hits and three walks in the first six innings.
The Series switches to Philadelphia for Game 3, which is scheduled for Saturday night. Rain is in the forecast. When the Phillies were last in the Series, in 1993, the third game began after a rain delay of 1 hour, 12 minutes.
Following a battle of left-handers in the opener, there were two righties starting, and both teams made lineup changes. Cliff Floyd started at designated hitter for the Rays in place of Willy Aybar, and Rocco Baldelli started in right instead of Ben Zobrist. Philadelphia used Greg Dobbs as its DH instead of Chris Coste.
Tampa Bay got off quickly. Myers walked Akinori Iwamura leading off, and Upton followed with a single that right fielder Jayson Werth misplayed for an error, putting runners on second and third with no outs.
Pena grounded to an overshifted Jimmy Rollins on the right side as Iwamura scored, and Longoria followed with a grounder to Rollins at his normal shortstop spot.
ed the bases. Iwamura popped out, but Upton singled to right for his 16th RBI of the postseason, three shy of the record shared by Cleveland’s Sandy Alomar Jr. (1997), Anaheim’s Scott Spiezio (2002) and Boston’s David Ortiz (2004).
Werth threw out Baldelli at the plate on the play, with catcher Carlos Ruiz tagging him as the runner’s hip crashed into mask.
Floyd singled leading off the fifth and wound up scoring from third on a safety squeeze bunt between the mound and first by Bartlett.
Shields worked out of trouble in the second, when Ryan Howard doubled leading off and Pat Burrell walked. After Victorino fouled out on the first pitch, Dobbs took a called third strike and Pedro Feliz flied to center.
Ruiz doubled starting the third, but Rollins grounded out, Werth struck out and Chase Utley grounded out. After Victorino’s hit put runners on the corners in the fourth, Dobbs struck out and Feliz grounded out. Then, with two on and one out in the fifth, Utley lined to right and Werth was doubled up at first by Baldelli.
Two-out singles by Victorino and Dobbs put runners at the corners in the sixth and chased Shields. Dan Wheeler relieved, and Feliz grounded into a forceout.
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