Rays Improve On Majors’ Best Road Record, Defeat Orioles

BALTIMORE — Rookie Wade Davis
allowed one run over eight innings in another sparkling performance
against the Baltimore Orioles, Evan Longoria had two hits during a
seven-run third inning and the Tampa Bay Rays rolled to an 8-1 victory
Monday night.

Jason Bartlett drove in two runs for
the Rays, who are 4-0 against the Orioles at Camden Yards and 6-1
overall. Tampa Bay owns the best road record in the majors (30-16)
despite losing two of three at Yankee Stadium over the weekend.

Davis (7-9) gave up seven hits, walked
one and struck out three. The right-hander is 9-11 in his brief
big-league career, but in three starts against Baltimore he's 3-0 with
an 0.75 ERA.

Davis has won two straight starts
after losing a career-high five consecutive decisions.

Cesar Izturis had two hits and drove
in the lone run for the Orioles, who have lost four straight — the last
two by a combined 18-2 score.

Orioles starter Chris Tillman (1-4)
surrendered eight runs, seven hits and four walks in 2 2/3 innings. He
also hit a batter.

Tampa Bay got a second-inning run when
John Jaso drew a leadoff walk and scored on a two-out double by Ben
Zobrist
, who had one RBI over his previous 12 games.

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The Rays sent 11 batters to the plate
in the third. Matt Joyce doubled in a run and B.J. Upton drew a
bases-loaded walk before Bartlett hit a two-run single and Sean
Rodriguez
drove in a run with a safety squeeze.

Carl Crawford then chased Tillman with
a run-scoring triple, and Longoria greeted Matt Albers with an RBI
single.

Baltimore used a walk and singles by
Craig Tatum and Izturis to get a run in the fifth.

Notes
The start of the game was
delayed by rain for 28 minutes. … Orioles DH Luke Scott went 1-for-3
after being activated from the DL before the game. … Tampa Bay
improved to 24-12 against AL East foes, 14-4 on the road. … Baltimore
fell a season-high 34 games under .500 (29-63) for the second time.