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Damon, Cobb lead Rays past Angels

Jun 8, 2011 - 5:31 AM Anaheim, CA (Sports Network) - Johnny Damon had three hits, an RBI and a run scored to lift the Rays over the Angels, 4-1, in the second of a three-game set.

Alex Cobb (1-0) earned his first career win after failing to register a decision in either of his first two outings. Cobb went 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run on seven hits while striking out three.

"I had good command of my fastball tonight and I felt comfortable. It's surreal. It hasn't really sunk in yet. It's awesome to think it's going to bring joy to my family," Cobb said about his first win.

Kyle Farnsworth earned his 12th save as Tampa won for the third time in four tries.

Dan Haren (5-4) allowed three runs on eight hits and a walk in seven innings. He also struck out six in the Angels fourth consecutive loss and the sixth defeat in seven games.

Haren was scheduled to start on Saturday, but was pushed back to Tuesday's contest after tweaking a back muscle during a side session earlier in the week.

"As the game went on, Dan's velocity went up. He gave us a chance to win but we're not scoring runs," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia.

The Rays jumped out to an early lead in the first after Damon led off the game with a triple and came home on a Ben Zobrist groundout.

Tampa Bay loaded the bases in the second with no outs but could not push a run across the plate. Casey Kotchman and Justin Ruggiano hit back-to-back singles to start the inning and John Jaso followed with a walk to fill the bags.

But the next three batters could not get a ball out of the infield as Haren got Sean Rodriguez to foul out to first, Reid Brignac to pop out to short and Damon to ground out to first to end the inning.

Tampa did manage to get a run in the third on a solo homer by B.J. Upton and another in the fourth on an RBI double by Damon to make it a 3-0 game.

The Angels broke through in the sixth after Howard Kendrick hit a one-out double and came around to score two batters later on a single by Torii Hunter.

Mark Trumbo led off the seventh with a double into right-center field that rolled under the glove of Upton and allowed Trumbo to take third on the error. Vernon Wells then popped out to shallow right field and Cobb was removed from the game.

J.P. Howell took the mound next and struck out pinch-hitter Maicer Izturis and also fanned Hank Conger to end the inning and keep the score 3-1.

Tampa increased its lead in the eighth after Kotchman hit a two-out double. After a Ruggiano single moved Kotchman to third, Jaso followed with a single that deflected off the glove of a diving Kendrick and into center field to finalize the scoring.

Farnsworth pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out the game.

Game Notes

Damon extended his career-high streak to 33 consecutive games in which he has reached base safely...Trumbo extended his career-high hit streak to nine games...Haren is now 6-3 in 11 starts against Tampa.