• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Shields, Devil Rays dominate Athletics

Aug 25, 2007 - 3:16 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Tampa Bay's James Shields returned to his old form Friday night.

Shields pitched 8 1/3 strong innings and Dioner Navarro and B.J. Upton homered as the Devil Rays routed the Oakland Athletics, 12-2, in the second of a four-game series.

All-Star Carl Crawford added three hits and two RBI for the Devil Rays, who had every starter in the batting order except for Josh Wilson collect at least one hit.

In his first 13 starts, Shields was 6-0 with a 3.05 ERA. In his last eight starts, however, he was only 2-6 with a 7.26 ERA.

"It's a lot easier to pitch with a big lead, believe it or not," Shields said. "You're able to be more aggressive and make pitches you want to make."

Against the Athletics, Shields (10-8) scattered nine hits, struck out eight and walked one. A two-run home run by Dan Johnson in the ninth, his 13th of the season, accounted for the only runs Shields surrendered.

"Shields did a grat job coming after guys," Navarro said. "We were working on the same page. We just kept going after them. We wanted the shutout. Unfortunately, that was the only mistake he made all day."

Shields ran into trouble just twice during the game. In the third inning, Mark Ellis reached on a bunt to lead off the inning before Jeff DaVanon doubled to left, putting runners at second and third with two outs. The 25-year-old righthander got Marco Scutaro to ground out to end the threat.

The Athletics put runners on second and third again, with one out in the sixth. Shields escaped the jam unscathed by getting Mike Piazza to pop out to second before Johnson grounded out to end the inning.

"He was cruising in the seventh and eighth and I wanted to give him a chance (for the complete game)," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "He has a lot of innings pitched, but not a lot of pitches thrown. He just attacks the zone, get ahead of guys and make them put the ball in play."

Lenny DiNardo (8-7) entered with a career-long five-game winning streak, but left in the third inning after allowing eight hits and six earned runs. The lefthander walked one and didn't strike out a batter during his shortest start of the season.

"I just didn't have it today," DiNardo said. "Everything I was throwing was predictable. Shields did an excellent job, he went out and pitched a great ballgame. I am going to learn from tonight and keep the ball down next time."

Navarro had four RBI while Upton drove in three. Crawford's three hits gave him 39 in August, five shy of Aubrey Huff's club record of 44 hits in a month

After Navarro's two-run shot in the second spotted Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead, the Devil Rays scored four more times in the third. Carlos Pena had an RBI double and Upton, Delmon Young and Brendan Harris each followed with consecutive RBI singles.

Navarro's two-run double increased Tampa Bay's lead to 8-0 in the fifth and Upton's 19th homer of the season made it 10-0.

"Their pitcher threw a great game, he threw a good changeup and located it well," Oakland manager Bob Geren said. "Our pitcher didn't have the location, theirs did."

The Devil Rays, who had only scored 10 runs in the past four games, scored the most runs in a game since a 14-4 victory against the New York Yankees on July 20.