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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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Tigers 2, Rays 1: ‘Frustrating’ was the word for the night

Posted Aug 24, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Aug 24, 2011 at 12:51 AM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG This was a tough one, and as manager Joe Maddon said afterwards, a team that is going to the playoffs finds a way to win a one-run game at home. A team that is not, talks about how frustrating it was to lose a one-run game.

“Overall,” third baseman Evan Longoria said, “pretty frustrating.”

The Rays lost 2-1 to the Tigers because they left 12 runners on base and went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

The Rays left the trying run at third base in the seventh inning when they left the bases-loaded, left the tying run at second in the eighth inning and left runners at second and third in the ninth when Ben Zobrist grounded out to first base to end a 10-pitch at-bat and the game.

The loss dropped the Rays to 8 ½ back of the Red Sox and Yankees, who are tied for division and Wild Card leads, with 35 games left in the season.

Here are some notes …

—Those 12 runners left on base tied a season-high.

—The Rays had 11 hits, but only once had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs.

—Five of the last eight Rays outs were strikeouts.

—It was the eighth time this season the Rays lost when a starter allowed two runs or less.

—It was only the fifth time this season the Rays lost when leading after the sixth inning.

—It was the fourth time in club history the Rays saw at least 170 pitches in a nine-inning game and scored one run or less.

—The Rays are 20-16 in one-run games this season. The Tigers are 21-15.

—David Price pitched eighth innings for the third straight game. He is now 12-3 for his career when pitching at least eight innings.

The Rays have scored one run or less with Price on the mound in seven of his last 13 starts.

Price had pitched 18 scoreless innings before allowing two runs in the seventh inning.

He’s allowed only five runs in his last three starts.

—Over the last 10 games, Rays starters have pitched 75 of the 88 innings and complied a 2.88 ERA, but are 4-4 in that span.

—The Rays 24 starts of eight or more innings is first in the American League and second in the majors.

—Zobrist has 10 RBIs in his last 13 games.

—Reid Brignac was 2-for-2 for his first multi-hit gamer since July 17 against Boston. It was his seventh multi-hit game of the year.

—Kyle Farnsworth streak of consecutive batters retired ended at 26 when he allowed a two-out double to Alex Avila in the ninth inning.

—Tigers starter Brad Penny threw a ball on his first pitch to the first 13 batters he faced and 21 of the 26 batters he faced during the game.

—Tiger shortstop Jhonny Peralta has 41 RBIs in 63 career games against the Rays.

—Avila is batting .429 in August and has hit safely in 18 of the 19 games and has reached base in all 19.