Record Rolling Rays

Tampa Bay is a major league best 15-5, a franchise record for April, following an 8-6 hammering of the Oakland A’s Tuesday night. The Rays have won 12 of their last 14 games and are off to the best 20 game start since the 2005 White Sox. They reached the fifteen win mark by weathering a shaky five innings from starter, Wade Davis. The right-hander buckled down his second win of the season after Pat Burrell’s three-run homerun snapped a 4-4 tie in the third inning. Reid Brignac added a solo shot as the number nine hitter for Tampa in the fourth. The A’s scored a pair of runs in the latter innings to trim the deficit to two, but Rafael Soriano tossed a perfect ninth to secure his fifth save.
Bay area newcomer, Ben Sheets, gave up four runs in the second inning as the Rays battered the $10 million Oakland starter. Sheets is 1-2 with a meteoric 8.0 ERA on the year. He allowed nine hits total and was charged with all eight runs. Meanwhile, the Rays’ new arrival is hardly having a rough time roping the ball in the hitter-friendly American League. The former Philly, Burrell, has keyed many rallies for the Rays so far this season. The first place Rays used a complete team effort in taking down the AL West’s top team. Jason Bartlett and John Jaso had monster nights at the Trop, with three hits each. The Rays are 5-0 with Jaso behind the plate, and the catcher is slugging .500 through eight contests. B.J. Upton tapped a pair of singles and scored twice in the win, and Burrell delivered the biggest blow to the Bay area ballclub. Carlos Pena put Tampa on board in the second with a single and scored on Jaso’s double to right field. Barlett’s single off Sheets punched home two more runs as the Rays took a 4-0 lead after two frames. Davis erased his team’s lead back during a 41 pitch third inning. He allowed four hits and walked two as Oakland tied the game. Davis walked Eric Patterson on a full count and issued an infield single to a hustling Adam Rosales to begin the frame. Cliff Pennington preceded by planting a poorly located 1-2 fastball into the seats for three tallies. Oakland right fielder, Gabe Gross’s sacrifice fly knotted the game even. Pennington and Rosales were the shining stars at the plate, with four hits apiece, for the Athletics. Pennington pounded two doubles in addition to the three run shot.
Tampa’s defense and bullpen was on the mark as the Rays’ bats came through to bailout Davis and regain the lead in the bottom of the third. The league leaders in runs scored added three more in the third. Upton’s single scored Pena to break the tie and Burrell’s blast gave the Rays a comfortable advantage. The Rays’ DH has 12 RBIs, including five go-ahead RBIs. Brignac tacked on another run to add to the Tampa lead in the fourth. Randy Choate retired all four batters he faced after Lance Cormier coughed up a run in relief of Davis. Pennington picked up his first double off Cormier and contributed a second double in the eighth off 32 year old reliever, Grant Balfour. Rosales’ RBI single in the eighth off Balfour made it a two-run game, but that was as close as visiting Oakland would come to a win. Both teams stranded eight runners, but it was high fives all around for the Rays as they continue to do nothing but win.

Parting Points: Washington’s Mark Emmert is the new NCAA President.

The Mets are hot. I am sure they will forget how to play come September.

The Lakers can’t lose again the way they routed Oklahoma City 111-87 last night. It won’t be easy to close out the series on the road, but I don’t expect L.A. to lose this one.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Alex Ovechkin and the Caps go down to Montreal tonight.