NewsUpton's clutch double in eighth lifts Rays
Tampa Bay moves a season-high five games over .500
By Bill Chastain / MLB.com
06/27/09 12:12 AM ET
ST. PETERSBURG -- DiMaggio, Jason Bartlett is not. On Friday night, his club-record hitting streak ended at 19 games, well short of the Yankee Clipper's record 56.
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But while Bartlett didn't extend his hitting streak, he did extend the eighth inning to keep the door open for the winning rally in a 7-3 Rays win over the Marlins in front of a crowd of 20,972 at Tropicana Field.
By winning, the Rays (40-35) moved to five games over .500, which is their high-water mark this season and the most they have been over the break-even point since ending the 2008 season 32 games over .500 at 97-65. In addition, the Rays moved to 11-5 in Interleague Play for the season.
Bartlett had no hits in three at-bats when he stepped to the plate in the eighth with the score tied at 3, one out and a runner on first. Facing Florida's Renyel Pinto, Bartlett grounded to third on a play that appeared destined to become a twin killing. Instead, the Rays shortstop hustled down the line to beat the relay from second that would have completed the inning-ending double play.
"It was actually a close play. I wonder if I was safe," Bartlett said with a chuckle. "I always say hustle pays off."
Rays manager Joe Maddon relished Bartlett's hustle on the play.
"When you beat the backside of a double play to prolong an inning, it's huge," Maddon said. "And it was tonight."
Gabe Gross followed with a walk to chase Pinto. Bartlett then stole third on a play in which Pinto's replacement, Brian Sanches, also delivered a wild pitch to allow Gross to reach second. Dioner Navarro was intentionally walked after he worked the count to 3-0 to bring B.J. Upton to the plate.
Sanches got ahead with a slider for strike one.
"Then just let a fastball up over the plate," Sanches said. "And you can't do that against a club like this one."
Upton was sitting on the fastball and drove the ball off the wall in right-center field to empty the bases and put the Rays up, 6-3.
"I'm always looking for a fastball that's left out over the plate," said Upton, who went 2-for-4 with two doubles, three RBIs, three runs scored and recorded his 27th stolen base of the season.
Carl Crawford finished off the scoring in the eighth with a bloop single to center field to score Upton.
"Late in the game, as you put guys on, it's going to come back and haunt you, especially when you put these guys on the base paths," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Carlos Pena's RBI single in the first pushed home the Rays' first run. Evan Longoria added an RBI single in the third and Crawford scored on a wild pitch in the fifth to put the Rays up, 3-2, with their No. 1 starter James Shields on the mound giving his usual blue-collar effort.
Shields chalked up his 10th quality start in 16 starts this season after allowing three runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings. He might have gone deeper had he not surrendered a solo home run to Hanley Ramirez with two outs in the seventh. Jorge Cantu followed with a single on Shields' 96th pitch of the evening, prompting Maddon to go to the bullpen.
The combined bullpen effort of Randy Choate, Grant Balfour, Dan Wheeler and J.P. Howell finished off the outing with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Howell pitched the final 1 1/3 innings to gain his third win of the season.
"I kept us as close as I could," Shields said. "The bullpen did a great job coming in and shutting them down. ... I didn't have my good stuff tonight, but I hung in and battled. That's a good-hitting team."
The Rays have now won eight of their past nine at home and improved to 14-3 in their past 17 home games. Nice numbers, but Maddon seemed to like Bartlett's hustle best.
"When you talk to your players, the obvious stuff, everybody wants the hit, everybody wants their knocks, whatever," Maddon said. "But all this other stuff counts in this game. And all this other stuff matters. When you play at the end of the season, when you're playing in the playoffs, when you're part of that eight, you look back and you've done all these other things well."
Bill Chastain is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
