MVN - Most Valuable Network

Big Daddy Floyd’s Walkoff Lifts Rays over White Sox

Big Daddy Floyd--Dbullsfan

“It’d be nice to pop some bottles at the end of this thing.” –Cliff Floyd

Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports 

Rays 2, White Sox 1

 

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)—Cliff Floydlined a leadoff home run in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the AL East-leading Rays the win.

Floyd’s fourth homer of the season came against Scott Linebrink(2-1). It ended a stretch in which the White Sox bullpen had not allowed an earned run in 28 innings.

A crowd of 14,679 saw the Rays win a matchup of division leaders and raise their league-best record to 33-22. Floyd homered on an 0-1 pitch and enabled Tampa Bay to overcome going only 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Dan Wheeler (1-3), the fourth Rays pitcher, worked one scoreless inning for the victory.

The Rays took a 1-0 lead on B.J. Upton’s RBI single in the third inning.

Alexei Ramirezhomered in the fifth for the White Sox.

Inside the Box Score:

• Aki Iwamura: 2-4, 5th straight game with two hits

• B.J. Upton: 1-2, 2 BB, 1 RBI(Team Leader with 33)

• Carlos Pena: 0-3, 2 K’s, 0-15  with 9 K’s last four games

• Cliff Floyd: 1-4, HR, 1 RBI, Walkoff Home Run(4th of career)

• James Shields: 6 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 1.72 ERA at home

• Bullpen(Reyes,Howell, Wheeler): 3 IP, O R, 1 H, 3 BB, 4 K

Rays Next Game:

Scott Kazmir(4-1, 1.50 ERA) takes the mound against Javier Vazquez(5-3, 3.62 ERA) in what is already a soldout game at the Trop(3rd of the year). Scott Kazmir has been lights out in his last four starts going 4-0 with a 0.69 ERA. In those four starts, Kaz has a 27:7 K/BB ratio. For his career he is 2-1 with a 4.19 ERA against the White Sox.

OPS Notebook:

• Rays Record: 33-22, Best in the American League, Lead Boston by 1.0 game in the East.

• The Rays won their 33 game this season in just the 55th game of the year. Last year win number 33 game in the 73rd game.

• The Rays are now 6-2 on this homestand clinching a winning record on the longest homestand of the season(10 games).

• With 61 Steals the team is 1st in the American League. B.J. Upton(17) and Carl Crawford(14) are the top tandem on any team in steals.

• Don’t call it a comeback…yet, but Rocco Baldelli will get another five at bats in extended Spring Training today.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 10:36 am and is filed under MVN Rays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.