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Cobb pitches Rays past Marlins

Jun 19, 2011 - 6:38 AM St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Alex Cobb allowed two runs through 6 1/3 innings and Johnny Damon joined an elite group as Tampa Bay beat down Florida, 7-4, to take the first two of a three-game interleague series.

Cobb (2-0) let up just three hits and two walks while striking out two in the Rays' third win in five games.

Ricky Nolasco (4-3) allowed five runs on eight hits and a walk through five innings as Florida lost its ninth in a row and fell to 1-17 in the month of June.

Damon led off the bottom of the first inning with a blooper into shallow left field that he legged out for the 500th double of his career.

"There are a number of those bloop [doubles], and those are the ones you are especially proud of because you bust your butt every time you hit the ball and good things happen, and that's what happened today," Damon said.

With the double, Damon became the 11th player all-time with 500 doubles, 100 triples, 200 home runs and 2,500 hits. The 10 others to reach these marks are Hall of Famers George Brett, Lou Gehrig, Goose Goslin, Rogers Hornsby, Willie Mays, Paul Molitor, Stan Musial, Babe Ruth, Al Simmons and Robin Yount.

Damon then moved to third on a Ben Zobrist groundout and came home on Matt Joyce's sacrifice fly to deep right field, tying the game at one.

Logan Morrison had hit a groundout in the top half to plate Emilio Bonifacio, who walked, stole second and advanced to third on John Jaso's throwing error.

Sam Fuld singled in B.J. Upton in the second and, as Upton easily scored before Dewayne Wise's throw reached home, Fuld took second. Reid Brignac followed with a double down the left-field line to bring in Fuld.

Tampa added a Casey Kotchman RBI double in the third and Joyce's second sacrifice fly of the night in the fifth to make it a 5-1 contest.

The Rays continued to pile on the runs in the sixth, this time on an error. With the bases loaded and two outs, Joyce hit a high pop-up in between third and short. Greg Dobbs seemed to settle under it, but as he reached to his left for the ball, it hit the top of his glove and fell to the ground, allowing Brignac and Damon to score.

Cobb allowed a single to Dobbs and a walk to Hanley Ramirez in the seventh before being replaced by Adam Russell on the mound. Dobbs went to third on a Jose Lopez groundout and crossed the plate on Russell's wild pitch to make it a 7-2 game.

Florida added runs on Morrison's sac fly in the eighth and Omar Infante's RBI single in the ninth to finalize the scoring.

"Same questions, same answers, same month," Marlins manager Edwin Rodriguez said. "The starting pitcher has to give us a chance to score some runs and keep us in the game. Ricky [Nolasco] was up in the zone today, and that's why he got hit and pretty much the same story."

Game Notes

Florida's Mike Stanton was scratched before the game because of a right eye infection...The Marlins have lost 20 of their last 23 games...Florida went 1- for-10 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base, while Tampa Bay was 2-for-11 and stranded eight.