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Rays send ChiSox to seventh straight loss

Apr 21, 2011 - 4:07 AM St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Wade Davis pitched seven strong innings and John Jaso belted a two-run homer, leading the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-1 victory over the slumping Chicago White Sox.

The Rays have won the first three games of this four-game series and will go for the sweep on Thursday.

Davis (2-2) allowed one run on six hits and two walks while striking out two. Joel Peralta and Kyle Farnsworth pitched one perfect inning apiece, with Farnsworth getting three straight ground balls in the ninth to earn his fourth save.

Philip Humber (1-2) took the loss, giving up all four Tampa Bay runs in 5 1/3 innings. He allowed six hits and two walks, striking out two.

Carlos Quentin hit a solo homer for the White Sox, who dropped their seventh straight game.

The Rays, meanwhile, reached .500 for the first time this season after losing their first six games and starting 1-8. They moved to 9-9 with their eighth victory in nine games.

"It's a great feeling after the rough start that we had," said Tampa Bay rightfielder Matt Joyce, who had two doubles. "To come back is really a testament to the talent that's on this team."

As it turned out, Tampa Bay got all the runs it needed on Jaso's first home run of the season in the second inning. He cracked a 1-0 pitch into the seats in right field to score Casey Kotchman, who had reached on a two-out single.

Kotchman, Joyce and Reid Brignac all had two hits apiece for the Rays, accounting for nearly all of Tampa Bay's seven total hits.

Kotchman's second hit was a two-out RBI double in the fourth, scoring B.J. Upton for a 3-0 lead. Joyce doubled home Brignac in the fifth to make it a four-run game.

Davis gave up a walk to Quentin and a double to Paul Konerko in the first inning, putting runners at second and third. But he set the White Sox down in order in three of the next four innings until Quentin lined a 2-0 pitch inside the left-field foul pole leading off the sixth for his fourth homer of the season.

Adam Dunn doubled with one out in the inning, but was stranded at second base. The White Sox never got another runner past first the rest of the game.

"I'm not going to take any credit from those guys. They're playing well," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said of the Rays. "They played great defense ... They got big hits."

Game Notes

The Rays are chasing their first sweep of the season. They beat the Red Sox in the first two games of a three-game series last week, but the third game was rained out...The White Sox (7-11) were swept in a three-game series by the Angels over the weekend...White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was ejected by home plate umpire Brian Knight in the sixth inning.