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Rays' offense comes alive in win over Cardinals

Jun 12, 2014 - 5:48 AM St. Petersburg, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Desmond Jennings drove in two runs as the Tampa Bay Rays snapped their franchise-worst scoreless innings streak and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, from Tropicana Field on Wednesday.

Jennings and Ben Zobrist each had two hits apiece for the Rays, who pushed across four runs in the fourth after not scoring in 31 straight innings.

"We finally got some hits when we needed it. We had some really great at- bats," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Starter Erik Bedard was reached for three runs on eight hits with four strikeouts in four innings, but Juan Carlos Oviedo (2-2) allowed just one hit in 1 1/3 scoreless frames and struck out two to earn the win.

Yadier Molina supplied two hits and two RBI and Jon Jay had two hits and a run scored for the Cardinals, who had their three-game winning streak snapped. Michael Wacha (4-5) was tagged with the loss after giving up four runs on four hits and four walks in five innings.

"I wasn't very happy with my performance today," Wacha said.

The Rays ended their scoreless streak and took the lead in the fourth. James Loney's leadoff single down the left-field line was Tampa Bay's first hit of the game. Zobrist followed him up with a single and two batters later, Matt Joyce brought them both home with a line drive base hit into center.

Yunel Escobar and Ryan Hanigan both walked to load the bases. Jennings stroked a line drive single into left, scoring Joyce and Escobar for a 4-3 lead.

With the bases loaded in the fifth for St. Louis, Peter Bourjos' liner to right was snagged by Kevin Kiermaier, who extended his glove with a leaping grab to keep the Rays ahead.

Tampa Bay tacked two runs on in the seventh. Jennings singled and Kiermaier walked off Carlos Martinez before Longoria's sharp single to right brought around Jennings and placed men on the corners with one out. Randy Choate replaced Martinez and immediately gave up a sacrifice fly to Loney that scored Kiermaier.

The Cardinals opened the scoring in the third. Matt Carpenter walked and Allen Craig doubled down the left-field line to put men at second and third with two outs. Molina's base hit into right allowed Carpenter to score and Craig got around the tag of the catcher Hanigan to make it a 2-0 game.

In the fourth, Carpenter's RBI single to right with men on first and third gave the Cardinals a 3-0 advantage.

Game Notes

The Rays snapped a six-game interleague skid ... Wacha gave up more than three runs for the first time this season ... Jay extended his hitting streak to seven games ... Tampa Bay went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position while St. Louis went 2-for-7.