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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Price joins, Sonnanstine, Garza and Shields in 4 wins in April club

Posted Apr 30, 2012 by Roger Mooney

Updated Apr 30, 2012 at 07:47 AM

ROGER MOONEY
ARLINGTON, Tx. David Price joined James Shields, Andy Sonnanstine and Matt Garza as the only pitchers in team history to win four times in April.

Price gained entrance in that select club with Sunday’s 5-2 victory against the Rangers at Rangers Ballpark. It was the first time Price beat the Rangers in 10 career starts, including three in the postseason.

Naturally, Price was happy to finally get the best of the Rangers potent offense.

“Absolutely, I felt like that’s the best lineup in bases,” he said. “They got power one through nine. They got speed mixed in there. They can hit the ball out to any part of the ballpark, here, so you got to be able to make your pitches and keep the ball down.”

Sonnanstine was the first Rays pitcher to win four games in April when he went 4-0 in 2008. Garza matched him in 2010 and Shields joined the 4-0 in April club Friday when he led the Rays past the Rangers during the first game of the three-game series.

Here are some other notes from Sunday’s win …

—Sunday’s win clinched the fourth straight series victory for the Rays and was their fifth straight win a series finale.

—The Rays are now 2-5 all-time on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

—Price has now beaten every American League team in which he’s faced. He still has yet to face the Mariners.

—Ben Zobrist’s second inning triple Sunday was the 21st of his career, tying him with Akinori Iwamura for the third on the Rays all-time list. With three hits in Sunday, Zobrist raised his season average above 2.00 to .213.

—Jeff Keppinger has a hit in every game he’s played at Rangers Ballpark. He had hits in all three games he played there last season while a member of the Astros and had hits in Friday’s and Sunday’s games. Keppinger, who was 2-for-3 Sunday is 11-for-19 (.579) with two doubles and three RBI on the Rangers turf.