Tampa Bay @ Oakland preview
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Last Meeting ( Aug 21, 2010 ) Tampa Bay 5, Oakland 4
Locked in a stirring duel with the New York Yankees for a division title that will likely determine the top seed in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays cannot afford to go into a tailspin.
Second baseman Sean Rodriguez prevented that from happening, belting a two-run homer in the eighth inning Saturday night to lift Tampa Bay to a 5-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
The clutch blast by Rodriguez - just his first home run since Aug. 3 - kept the Rays within one game of the front-running Yankees in the AL East and 5 1/2 games ahead of Boston for a wild-card spot.
It also allowed Tampa Bay to blot out the memory of back-to-back one-run losses to Oakland in the first two games of the series, with both defeats coming after the Rays had carried a lead into the later innings.
After snapping Oakland's four-game winning streak, Tampa Bay will go for a split of the four-game series Sunday against a pitcher the Rays would like to erase from their memory banks.
When Athletics left-hander Dallas Braden last faced Tampa Bay, he gave the team an unwanted place in the history books by pitching a perfect game in a 4-0 victory on Mother's Day.
Braden's record (8-8) suggests that performance was a fluke, as does the fact that he didn't register another victory for 2 1/2 months after his sterling effort - a span interrupting by a stint on the disabled list.
However, following a rocky outing against Boston in his first start off the DL, Braden has gone 4-1 in his last five starts, including a pair of complete-game efforts, to get back to .500 on the season.
The 27-year-old Braden has been particularly sharp in his last two starts, surrendering just two earned runs and seven hits in victories over Toronto and Seattle.
He has enjoyed success in his career against Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria, who hit his third homer in four games Saturday night but is just 3-for-15 lifetime against Braden.
That adds up to a tough matchup for the Rays and right-hander Matt Garza, who has never beaten Oakland in four career starts.
Garza (12-7) etched his own name in the history books on July 26, throwing a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers.
Like Braden, the brilliant effort didn’t have a carry-over effect, as Garza was winless in his next three starts – although Tampa Bay’s offense didn’t help by providing just seven runs total.
Garza bounced back in his last outing, throwing seven scoreless innings and striking out 10 in a 10-1 romp over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday that gave him a career high in wins.