The Rays put Baltimore to the sword in their 2-game mini-series at Tropicana Field, sweeping them by a combined score of 23-4.
Leo Gutierrez took a no-hitter into the 6th inning and five different Rays homered in a 12-2 rout of the Orioles in the first of their two-game set. Gutierrez (3-4) ended up going 7 1 0 0 1 7 as he coasted with more than ample run support. That support came in large part from longballs off the bats of
Danny Rodriguez (#10),
Victor Gonzalez (#10),
Billy Doughty (#5),
Rogelio Fitzgerald (#4/12) and
Ray Green (his first as a big-leaguer). Green had the biggest day overall, going 3-4 with a double, the homer and 2 RBI.
We made a trade:
Farrior is a 23-year-old rookie who was serving as the Cincinnati closer (5 SV, 1.35 ERA, 18 K in 13.1 IP) and has 80 stuff to go with 55 movement and 45 (50 potential) control. He's a groundball guy which will serve him well with our infield D (especially when Begley returns) and will probably be our 7th-inning guy. The price was Lopez, a quality prospect but not a future star. To make room for Farrior
Sebastian Burns was sent to Durham where he'll work on being a starter.
In addition to the trade,
Tony Fisher was activated off the 10-day IL and
Willie Maldonado was returned to Durham.
Danny Rodriguez had a monster game and Tampa Bay bats unloaded once again on Baltimore pitching as the Rays romped 11-2. Oriole pitching could not retire D-Rod, who was 3-3 with 2 walks, 2 homers (#11 & 12) and 4 RBI. Also going yard twice and hopefully finally heating up was
Rogelio Fitzgerald, who now has 6 as a Ray (and half of those in the last two days) and 14 overall and drove in 4 runs. And also homering for the second straight night was
Victor Gonzalez (#11) who had a 2-run shot plus an earlier RBI double. This all made life easy for
Ruben Cerrillo who went to 5-0 after going 6 8 2 2 1 5.
Team record: 31-16. The Yankees lost one of their two games meaning they're only 1/2 game up on the Rays as the teams get ready to meet 3 more times at Tropicana Field this weekend.