ANGELS ROLL A SEVEN TEAM RALLIES IN 8TH TO EXTEND WINNING STREAK ANGELS 7, TAMPA BAY 5.Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer ANAHEIM - It's like the Angels have been laying back, waiting for the finish line to become visible, and then they turn on their finishing kick. For the third night in a row, the Angels came from behind in the late innings, this time beating the Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are a professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida, Florida. The Devil Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Devil Rays have played in Tropicana Field. , 7-5, in front of 42,421 at Angel Stadium. Coupled with Oakland's loss to Texas, the Angels increased their lead in the AL West to four games with nine remaining. The victory was the Angels' seventh in a row, one short of their longest winning streak Noun 1. winning streak - a streak of wins streak, run - an unbroken series of events; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies" of the season. And their magic number to clinch the division (any combination of Angels victories and A's losses) was reduced to six. Down 5-3 going into the bottom of the seventh, the Angels rallied for two runs to tie the game. In the eighth, a one-out walk by Juan Rivera Juan Rivera may refer to:
On an 0-1 pitch from Devil Rays reliever Joe Borowski
Joseph P. (Joe) Borowski (December 12, 1933-September 23, 1996) was a Canadian politician and activist. , Kotchman fisted a grounder through the drawn-in infield and into right field for a two-run single. All that was left was for Francisco Rodriguez Francisco Rodriguez may refer to:
Rodriguez was the Angels' fifth reliever of the night after an usually poor outing by starter Paul Byrd Paul Gregory Byrd (born December 3, 1970 in Louisville, Kentucky) is a Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher who plays for the Cleveland Indians. Byrd attended Louisiana State University where he pitched as part of the Tigers baseball team that won the 1991 . The bullpen combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings, Scot Shields Scot Shields (b. July 22, 1975, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, with whom he has spent his entire career, serving as their setup man since 2005. pitching a perfect eighth inning to get the victory. Byrd has been about as consistent as they come, having gone at least six innings in 27 of his 29 starts before Friday. But the Devil Rays, who beat up on Byrd for six runs the last time he faced them last month, continued their assault on him Friday. Byrd lasted a season-low 4 1/3 innings and gave up five runs and 10 hits as the Devil Rays had runners in scoring position In the sport of baseball, a baserunner is said to be in scoring position when he is on second or third base. The distinction between being on first base and second or third base is that a runner on first can usually only score if the batter hits an extra base hit, while a runner on in every inning he was in the game. It was evident from the start Byrd was off his game. He gave up a single to Julio Lugo leading off the first inning, and Lugo scored later in the inning on a two-out single by Aubrey Huff. The Angels took a 2-1 lead with two runs in the bottom of the first, an inning sparked by Orlando Cabrera's RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in triple. Byrd, though, was unable to hold the lead in the second. Travis Lee led off with a double and scored one out later on Toby Hall's single, tying the game at 2. The Devil Rays went up, 4-2, with two runs in the third inning, one scoring on Jorge Cantu's RBI double, and the other coming home on Jonny Gomes' sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the third, the Angels manufactured a run after Adam Kennedy's leadoff single, cutting the Devil Rays' lead to 4-3. But the Devil Rays got a solo home run from Huff in the fifth for a 5-3 lead, and Byrd was on the bench a little later. Angels reliever Kevin Gregg replaced Byrd and retired all seven batters he faced, while the Angels tried to figure out a way to get some more offense going against Devil Rays starter Casey Fossum. Fossum retired eight batters in a row before Darin Erstad broke the string with a one-out home run in the seventh, cutting the Angels' deficit to 5-4. It was Erstad's seventh homer of the season. Jose Molina followed with a hard-hit grounder to third that Alex Gonzalez couldn't handle, Molina reaching on the error. Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella replaced Fossum with Trever Miller, who retired Kennedy for the second out of the inning. With Chone Figgins batting, pinch runner Zach Sorensen broke for second as Figgins sliced a single into right field. Third base coach Ron Roenicke held Sorensen at third, but when first baseman Travis Lee knocked the ball away trying to short-hop Gomes' throw from right, Sorensen trotted home to tie the game at 5. Joe Haakenson, (626) 962-8811 joe.haakenson(at)sgvn.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, 6 boxes Photo: (1 -- color) The Angels' Curtis Pride and Juan Rivera are congratulated by teammates after scoring in the eighth inning against Tampa Bay on Friday night. (2) Angels starter Paul Byrd pitched a season-low 4 1/3 innings Friday night. Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press Box: (1) ANGELS vs. TAMPA BAY - Joe Haakenson (2) GAME RECAP (3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED (4) ALMANAC almanac, originally, a calendar with notations of astronomical and other data. Almanacs have been known in simple form almost since the invention of writing, for they served to record religious feasts, seasonal changes, and the like. (5) NL WILD CARD (6) PLAYOFF CHASE |
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