Final
Crawford leads Devil Rays past Blue Jays
Jun 7, 2007 - 4:26 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- A day after becoming his franchise's all-time hits leader, Carl Crawford is showing no signs of slowing down.Crawford drove in four runs and B.J. Upton and Brendan Harris each scored a pair for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays en route to a 6-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.
The Devil Rays shook off a crushing defeat Tuesday in which the bullpen allowed six runs in the ninth to turn an 11-6 lead into a 12-11 defeat. The relievers held strong on Wednesday, tossing four scoreless frames to nail down the win.
"The bullpen's back," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "Last night without Al (Reyes) available, we experimented with some stuff and it didn't work really well, but tonight was more like it."
Crawford broke Aubrey Huff's franchise record of 870 hits Tuesday and was one of six Tampa Bay hitters to get multiple knocks against the Blue Jays on Wednesday. Harris led the 13-hit charge with two doubles and a single.
"Last night was a devastating loss," Crawford said. "To come back and respond and have a good game and get the win - that's good for us."
Scott Kazmir (4-3) gutted his way through five innings, walking five and yielding two runs and six hits. The 23-year-old lefthander tossed 103 pitches - 65 for strikes - while striking out four.
"The first three innings I was pressing a little bit," Kazmir said. "I was trying to nit-pick instead of just going out there and attacking the hitters. I kind of found my rhythm after that but it was frustrating giving up all those pitches early on."
The Devil Rays' ace has been having trouble with his command all season, compiling just a 2.03-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and averaging just six innings per outing. Kazmir had words with home plate umpire Derryl Cousins after one particularly rough inning during which Toronto scored twice.
"You can't really expect to get any calls when you're not consistent around the plate," Kazmir said. "It was a little bit of a battle out there, but I'm just happy we got the win."
Tampa Bay jumped out on top in the second, when Ty Wigginton doubled off Toronto starter Tomo Ohka to open the frame. Ohka then walked Carlos Pena and surrendered a single to Delmon Young to load the bases for Jorge Cantu, who singled to drive in the first run of the game.
The Devil Rays tacked on another run in the third when Harris led off with a double and Crawford followed with an RBI single.
The Blue Jays got on the board in their half of the third when Kazmir walked Frank Thomas and Troy Glaus with one out. Aaron Hill made Kazmir pay for his wildness when he punched a double to deep center field to drive both runners home and forge a 2-2 tie.
"Kazmir's always tough on you," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He threw a lot of pitches and we figured if we could stay close we'd have a chance to come back, but it didn't happen."
Tampa Bay answered the following inning, loading the bases on three singles to chase Ohka from the game. Lefthander Brian Tallet came on in relief and immediately surrendered a bases-clearing double to Crawford to push the lead to 5-2 and closed the book on Ohka.
"I was just trying to get a pitch up that I could handle," said Crawford, who recorded his fifth multi-hit game in eight contests against Toronto this season. "I was able to put some good wood on it and find a hole."
"I wanted to throw a breaking ball for a strike, which I did," Tallet said. "It caught a little bit more of the plate than maybe I wanted to, but in that situation I've got to attack him."
Ohka yielded five runs and 10 hits in just 3 1/3 innings. The Japanese righthander has not won since April 29 against Texas.
- AL
FINAL
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
- - - - - - - - - - - -
TAMPA BAY 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 6 13 0
TORONTO 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 9 1 (FINAL)
BATTERIES: TAM - SCOTT KAZMIR, BRIAN STOKES (6TH), SHAWN CAMP (7TH), CASEY
FOSSUM (7TH), GARY GLOVER (9TH) AND DIONER NAVARRO
TOR - TOMO OHKA, BRIAN TALLET (4TH), SCOTT DOWNS
Jun 6 10:17 PM - AL
AT TORONTO - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY BRENDAN HARRIS SCORED B.J. UPTON.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, B HARRIS ON SECOND, 1 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TAMPA BAY 6
TORONTO 2 TOP, 8TH
DUE UP FOR TAMPA BAY: C CRAWFORD (.304, 2-FOR-4, 4 RBI)
Rays vs. Blue JaysJun 6 9:49 PM - AL
AT TORONTO - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY CARL CRAWFORD SCORED DIONER NAVARRO, B.J. UPTON
AND BRENDAN HARRIS.
SITUATION: 3 RUNS IN, C CRAWFORD ON THIRD, 1 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TAMPA BAY 5
TORONTO 2 TOP, 4TH
DUE UP FOR TAMPA BAY: T WIGGINTON (.248, 2-FOR-2)
Rays vs. Blue JaysJun 6 8:26 PM - AL
AT TORONTO - SCORING UPDATE
DOUBLE BY AARON HILL SCORED FRANK THOMAS AND TROY GLAUS.
SITUATION: 2 RUNS IN, A HILL ON SECOND, 1 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TAMPA BAY 2
TORONTO 2 BOTTOM, 3RD
DUE UP FOR TORONTO: J PHILLIPS (.250, 0-FOR-1)
Rays vs. Blue JaysJun 6 8:09 PM - AL
AT TORONTO - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY CARL CRAWFORD SCORED BRENDAN HARRIS.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, C CRAWFORD ON FIRST, 0 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TAMPA BAY 2
TORONTO 0 TOP, 3RD
DUE UP FOR TAMPA BAY: T WIGGINTON (.244, 1-FOR-1)
Rays vs. Blue JaysJun 6 7:51 PM - AL
AT TORONTO - SCORING UPDATE
SINGLE BY JORGE CANTU SCORED TY WIGGINTON.
SITUATION: 1 RUN IN, J CANTU ON FIRST, D YOUNG ON SECOND, C PENA
ON THIRD, 0 OUT
CURRENT SCORE: TAMPA BAY 1
TORONTO 0 TOP, 2ND
DUE UP FOR TAMPA BAY: D NAVARRO (.190, 0 HR, 10 RBI)
Rays vs. Blue JaysJun 6 7:34 PM
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