The Skinny: The Rays pitching continued to dominate the Yankees tonight but the offense just wasn’t up to the challenge. Tampa Bay’s pitching has shut down the Yankees so far in their series but tonight the batters couldn’t muster up enough runs as the Rays fell, 2-1. They are now 23-17.
The Pitching: James Shields kept up his end of the bargain. Shields went 7.1 innings and gave up only two runs. He got hit with a loss to drop to 4-3 on the season but lowered his ERA to 3.05. Shields threw 102 pitches and didn’t give up any home runs to the powerful Yankee line up.
The Hitting: The Rays got their only run of the night on a Dioner Navarro single in the seventh inning, it was all they could get off of veteran Mike Mussina. Carlos Pena, Cliff Floyd and Navarro each had two hits for the Rays while the rest of the line up could pick up only one more hit (a Gabe Gross double). The top of the Rays line up, Iwamura, Crawford and Upton went a combined 0-11 with four strike outs.
What’s Next?: The Rays will finish their series with the Yankees tomorrow at 4:10. They will then head to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals in some inter-league games. Starting on the mound tomorrow will be Scott Kazmir and his new contract.
