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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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Rays 3, Tigers 2 in 10: An ‘odd’ walk-off win

Posted Aug 25, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Aug 25, 2011 at 12:43 AM

Elliot Johnson hugs Sean Rodriguez, after Rodriguez’s hustle helped the Rays beat the Tigers on Wednesday night.

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG Not many teams can put together a 10th inning rally like the one the Rays engineered Wednesday night to beat the Tigers 3-2.

A single. A fielder’s choice. A hit-by-pitch. A pinch-hit walk. A fielder’s choice where the runner on first, Sean Rodriguez, beat the throw to second, allowing Ben Zobrist to score from third with the winning run.

“Odd,” manager Joe Maddon said.

Indeed.

The victory was the 10th walk-off win of the season and fifth this month. It was also the fifth time the Rays walked off with a fielder’s choice.

The win was the Rays 11th in their last 15 games, snapped a two-game losing streak and enabled them to move to within 7 ½ of the Wild Card-leading Yankees with 34 games to play.

It was also the Rays first win in six tries against the AL Central-leading Tigers. The Rays are the last team in the American League to win a game against every other team in the league.

Here are some facts from the game:

—The Rays first three batters were 7-for-14 while the rest of the team, including pinch-hitters, were 1-for-21.

—The Rays were 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position after going 1-for-8 in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss.

—Desmond Jennings had another multi-hit game.

—Wade Davis pitched nine innings for only the second time in his career, and first since Sept. 17, 2009, his third career start when he blanked the Orioles in Baltimore.

The Rays have won his last five starts and nine of his last 11.

The outcome to Davis’s last four starts have been decided in the eighth inning or later with three in walk-off fashion.

—Evan Longoria hit is 22nd home run of the season. It was also the 104th of his career, tying him with Carl Crawford for third on the club’s all-time home run list.

Nine of Longoria’s last 11 extra-base hits have been home runs. He has 11 home runs in his last 32 games.

—Johnny Damon had a pair of doubles, the second being the 2,700 hit of his career. Damon, 45th on the all-time doubles list with 513, is one shy of tying Edgar Martinez for 44th.

He has doubled in four straight games, trying the longest streak of his career, and has seven doubles in his last eight games.

He also extended his hitting streak to eight games.

—Tigers catcher Alex Avila, who hit another home run against the Rays this season, is batting .418 this month with 16 RBIs and six home runs. He has reached base in all 20 games and hit safely in 19 of those games.

—Elliot Johnson hit the fielder’s choice that won the game, joining Fred McGriff (Oct. 1, 2000 vs. Boston), Travis Lee (Sept. 11, 2005, Toronto), Dioner Navarro (May 2, 2007 vs. Minnesota) and Jason Bartlett (May 17, 2010 vs. Cleveland) on that list.

—The Rays are 3-for-23 with RISP during the series and have left 30 men on base, including 12 in each of the last two games.