ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Pat Burrell
and Reid Brignac homered Tuesday night, helping the Tampa Bay Rays
match a club record for wins in April with an 8-6 victory over the
Oakland Athletics.
The AL East leaders improved
baseball's best record to 15-5. The victory total equals the number they
had in the opening month two years ago, when they made a surprising run
to the World Series.
Burrell's three-run homer off Ben
Sheets (1-2) snapped a 4-4 tie in the third inning. Brignac's solo shot
leading off the bottom of the fourth gave right-hander Wade Davis (2-1)
an 8-4 lead.
The Rays have won 12 of 14 and are off
to the best start in the team's 13-season history. Nevertheless,
attendance for the opener of a two-game series against another
first-place team drew an announced crowd of 10,825 to Tropicana Field.
Davis weathered a shaky five innings
to win his second straight decision. He gave up a three-run homer to
Cliff Pennington, who had four hits and four RBI's — both career highs —
for the A's.
Pennington's RBI double off Lance
Cormier trimmed Oakland's deficit to 8-5 in the sixth. Adam Rosales
drove in a run with his career-best fourth hit — making it 8-6 in the
eighth — however the A's stranded the potential tying runs in scoring
position when Daric Barton struck out.
Rafael Soriano pitched a perfect ninth
for Tampa Bay, earning his fifth save in five opportunities.
The Rays played without catcher Dioner
Navarro, who began serving a two-game suspension for bumping an umpire
during an argument last week. He also will sit out Wednesday's finale
against the A's.
Jason Bartlett's two-run single was
the biggest blow in Tampa Bay's four-run second inning against Sheets,
who allowed eight runs and nine hits in four innings. Carlos Pena and
John Jaso, filling in for Navarro, also drove in runs in the inning.
Davis, however, couldn't hold the
early lead.
The A's struck for four runs of their
own in the third, with Pennington's third homer of the season doing
most of the damage. The A's went on to load the bases with two outs on a
walk and pair of singles before Gabe Gross lifted a sacrifice fly to
make it 4-4.
Burrell, who's 8-for-19 with three
homers lifetime against Sheets, put Tampa Bay ahead for good. Brignac's
homer leading off the fourth inning restored a four-run lead for Davis,
who yielded four runs and seven hits.
Notes
Pennington is 6-for-24 on the
road, and three of the hits have been home runs. … LF Eric Patterson's
second-inning throwing error snapped Oakland's season-high streak of
six consecutive games without an error. … Rays LHP J.P. Howell, who's
on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left shoulder, is set to
make 25 to 30 "nice and easy" throws off a mound on Wednesday. …
Oakland C Kurt Suzuki missed his third straight game with soreness in
his left side. … Barton was in the lineup at first base for the A's,
despite a small fracture of his right middle finger. He was hurt Sunday
sliding into the dugout to make a catch.