Span knocked in two with a home run./CARMEN MANDATO
Sunday, 3 a.m.
The streak is dead.
According to the Tampa Bay Rays, it's time to start another one.
The Rays lost 4-3 to the Boston Red Sox Sunday blowing a 3-0 lead as their eight-game winning streak ended. The Rays tried to mount comebacks in the eighth and ninth innings, but both times, Craig Kimbrel struck his way out of trouble.
In the eighth, the Rays had runners on second and third, but Kimbrell struck out Brad Miller to get out of the inning. Then, in the ninth, the Rays had runners on second and third with one out. Once again, Kimbrel was too good, striking out Jesus Sucre and Carlos Gomez to end the game.
Content beyond this point is for members only.
Already a member? To view the rest of this column, sign in using the handy "Sign In" button located in the upper right corner of the GarySheltonSports.com blog (it's at the far right of the navigation bar under Gary's photo)!
Not a member? It's easy to subscribe so you can view the rest of this column and all other premium content on GarySheltonSports.com.
Cash saw his team's winning streak end./CARMAN MANDATO
"I'm proud of the guys," said manager Kevin Cash. "We'll get on another streak. We're a lot more confident team than we were 10 days ago, and that's a good thing."
The Rays, who have won four series in a row, took a 3-0 lead Sunday after a two-run homer by Denard Span and an RBI single by Mallex Smith.But the Sox came back, scoring three earned runs off of Andrew Kittredge. The Rays failed to score in their final five at-bats.
"That's something that I pride myself on, attacking hitters and going right after guys and not walking guys," Kittredge said. "There were a lot of just-misses today. I wasn't wild by any means, but, just-misses, getting behind in the count in a big situation with a lot of runners on base. It's just something you don't want to get in the habit of doing, and today it came back and bit me."
For the Rays, Wendle, Robertson and Smith all had two hits.
Robertson has played well for Rays./JEFFREY S. KING
"I liked the fact that Sucre was up," Cash said. "He missed some fastballs that he’s p----- about. The guys played really well. Today was telling. We put pressure on their guy."
For Boston, J.D. Martinez had four hits. Sandy Leon singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth off of Alex Colome.
Colome fell to 2-3 with the loss.
The Rays now travel to Detroit tonight for a game at 7:10 p.m. Jake Faria pitches for the Rays against Jordan Zimmerman.
{ 0 comments… read it below or Subscriptions }