Andy Sonnanstine pitched a nice 6 innings and was backed by his offense to notch his team leading 11th victory. Sonny scattered 7 hits, 1 BB, 2 ER and 6 K’s in a complete 6 innings of work. Al Reyes and Jason Hammel finished the game for him and, be it for a blip by Reyes allowing 1 ER, pitched effective and kept the powerful Tiger bats quiet.
The big story of this game was the offensive explosion from the Rays! They looked like the Rays we came to know and love from the first half of the season. The offense banged out 11 hits – 5 of which were for extra bases. Evan Longoria was the offense spark plug going 3 for 4 including his 2nd HR in as many days, a 2B, 3 RBI, 1 run and a stolen base. The other Rays to add the 2B hit parade were BJ Upton, Jason Bartlett, Shawn Riggans and Akinori Iwamura.
The impressive thing about the offense was watching them work. The intensity was higher than I’ve seen it in, oh, about a month. They worked the counts for walks (7) and really looked like they were energized. It made the lethargic and less than stellar month of July vanish into past. It made the future for the Rays look like October was again a reality!
Go out today and support the team as they go for the sweep of the Detroit Tigers! See you there!!
