Rays take over first in AL East from Red Sox
What a first half the Tampa Bay Rays enjoyed as the majors' surprise team of the season.
Their goal now? To make the second half just as stunningly good.
Backup catcher Shawn Riggans homered among his 3 hits and drove in 2 runs and the first-place Rays completed a remarkable first-half turnaround, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 Sunday behind Andy Sonnanstine's 7 effective innings.
Tampa Bay regained first place in the AL East for the first time since June 3 thanks to Boston's loss at Houston. The Red Sox and Rays open a three-game series at Tropicana Field on Monday night. The Rays are 49-32, the most victories midway through a season by a team that had the majors' worst record the season before, according to Stats, Inc.
They went 5-1 on a road trip to Florida and Pittsburgh and finished 12-6 in interleague play. All this by a team that has never had a winning season or won more than 70 games since joining the AL as an expansion team in 1998. "We went 5-1 on the trip and I felt we let one slip away," said closer Troy Percival, who pitched the ninth inning for his 18th save in 20 opportunities. "You get to that point, you've got a team that's doing something special." The Rays' .605 winning percentage has been bettered at midseason by a team that was the worst overall the previous season only by the 1903 New York Giants (.643, 45-25).
"This is great, but it's only the first half," said Riggans, who has 15 RBI in 73 at-bats. "Nobody remembers the first half."
Cardinals 9, Royals 6: Jason LaRue drove in 4 runs with a home run and a funny-looking triple, and Albert Pujols also homered to lead visiting St. Louis past Kansas City.
Mets 3, Yankees 1: Oliver Perez pitched another gem, Carlos Delgado homered again, and the host Mets won this year's New York Subway Series four games to two with a win over the Yankees at Shea Stadium.
Angels 1, Dodgers 0: John Lackey couldn't match his teammates' no-hit effort from a night before. Unlike Angels teammate Jered Weaver, though, he got the win after holding the host Dodgers to 3 hits over 8 innings,
Giants 11, Athletics 1: Rich Aurilia homered and matched his career high with 5 RBI to help visiting San Francisco beat Oakland for the Giants' first series win in the Bay Area rivalry in two years.
Blue Jays 1, Braves 0: With his fastball topping out at 96 mph, A.J. Burnett pitched 7 shutout innings, Alex Rios drove in the only run of the game as Toronto edged visiting Atlanta.
Twins 5, Brewers 0: Kevin Slowey breezed through his fourth straight dominant start for Minnesota, beating Ben Sheets and visiting Milwaukee with a 3-hit shutout. Delmon Young (2-run homer) and Carlos Gomez (RBI triple) led the Twins' offense.
Astros 3, Red Sox 2: Mark Loretta, who played for Boston in 2006, had a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth inning off Hideki Okajima to lift Houston to a win over visiting Boston, helping to drop the Red Sox into second place in the American League East.
Reds 9, Indians 5: Bronson Arroyo (5-7) bounced back from the worst start of his career and Adam Dunn hit a 3-run homer to help visiting Cincinnati beat Cleveland.
Tigers 4, Rockies 3: Dane Sardinha hit a 2-run triple for his first major-league hit to rally host Detroit to a win over Colorado, giving the Tigers their fifth straight victory.
Nationals 3, Orioles 2: Ronnie Belliard hit a 2-run homer in the 12th inning to give host Washington a win over Baltimore.
Mariners 9, Padres 2: Ichiro Suzuki went 5-for-5 to tie his career high, Adrian Beltre and Jeff Clement homered, and visiting Seattle beat Jake Peavy and punchless San Diego.
Rangers 5, Phillies 1: Eric Hurley (1-1) pitched into the sixth inning to earn his first major-league win, and Chris Davis homered to lead host Texas past Philadelphia.
National League
Martins 4, D'backs 3: If Florida could play everyone like it does the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Marlins might find themselves atop the NL East.
Jorge Cantu hit a game-ending RBI single, Hanley Ramirez hit a tying home run and the Marlins came back to beat the Diamondbacks.
Ramirez's 18th home run of the season made it 3-3 in the ninth. Jeremy Hermida then doubled, and took third on a wild pitch by closer Brandon Lyon before Cantu's single.
"They set up the table and I just had to finish it," Cantu said. "Give credit to those guys ahead of me - they're the ones who put it all in motion."
Lyon (2-2) ended a career-high 15 consecutive outings without a blown save. It was the first time since April 2 against Cincinnati he failed in a save opportunity.
"It's a tough one, especially going home, it's a long flight," Lyon said. "The way we played this series we should have come out with at least two out of three. It's kind of the way things are going right now, when one thing is not going good things keep slipping."
Joe Nelson (1-0) gave up one hit in the ninth to earn his first win of the year for the Marlins.