If last season ultimately meant disappointment for the Tampa Bay Rays, they have swiftly put that behind them in notching a win in their opening three-game series against Boston Red Sox.
Matt Garza pitched seven innings of four-hit ball, and the Rays hit three homers off Daisuke Matsuzaka to 4-3 on Thursday. Evan Longoria had three hits, including a two-run homer, and Matt Joyce and Shawn Riggans also homered for the defending AL champions.
"We just wanted to establish ourselves early in the season, set the tone and let the people know it wasn't a fluke," said Garza (1-0), who allowed one run and three walks, striking out five to improve to 6-1 in his career against Boston. "We're here to battle for a while."
No one really thought that last season was a fluke, but it is nice to see the first win on the board all the same.
Matsuzaka (0-1) gave up four runs, nine hits and three walks in 5 1-3 innings. The Japanese star was MVP of the World Baseball Classic for the second straight time, but his season debut more closely resembled his performance in Game 5 of last year's AL championship series, when he gave up three homers in four innings before the Red Sox rallied from a seven-run deficit to win 8-7 and force the series back to Tampa Bay.
Boston had not lost an opening series since 1988, but the Red Sox have now lost consecutive regular-season series at Fenway Park to the Rays; Tampa Bay had not won a series in Boston in its previous 25 visits. In all, the Rays have won 13 of their last 19 games against the Red Sox, including the seven game AL championship series in which Garza beat Boston twice to earn MVP honors.
Tampa Bay now heads to Baltimore to play the Orioles, a team the Rays have beaten 12 straight times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment