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Six-run fifth propels Devil Rays past Rangers

May 17, 2007 - 6:09 AM ORLANDO, Florida (Ticker) -- Carl Crawford helped the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to a season-first.

Crawford had a key three-run triple during a six-run fifth inning and Delmon Young drove in three runs as the Devil Rays outscored the Texas Rangers, 11-8, on Wednesday.

Rookie Elijah Dukes hit a solo homer and B.J. Upton had two RBI for Tampa Bay, which had its first three-game winning streak of the season.

"We've been playing well the last few days and we hit the ball well tonight," Devil Rays manager Joe Madden said.

It's the first time they've won three straight since August 21-23, 2006.

The 11 runs were the most the Devil Rays have scored this season, surpassing the 10 in a victory over the New York Yankees on April 23.

Devil Rays starter Casey Fossum (3-3) surrendered six runs and nine hits in five innings while striking out four.

"I really wanted the Rangers to hit the ball to left, but they only hit about two balls that way," Fossum said. "However our offense did a great job today. We got a big lead and Al Reyes came in and closed the door."

Even though the lefthander evened his record, it was the fifth time he's allowed five-plus runs in a start to increase his ERA to 7.80.

"I still believe he's been throwing the ball well," Madden said. "Today he made some bad pitches and they got them."

Reliever Jae Kuk Ryu pitched 1 2/3 innings before Shawn Camp came on for an inning and Brian Stokes finished the eighth, getting the one batter he faced. Reyes recorded a 1-2-3 ninth for his 12th save in as many opportunities

Rangers starter Vicente Padilla (1-6) was tagged for eight runs - all earned - a career-high 12 hits in four-plus innings.

"Their first guy Padilla has a really good arm and I can see why he's as good as he is, but we had good at-bats against him, better than they had against Casey," Madden said. "I liked our at-bats all through the game, it was pretty nice."

The righthander, who struck out three, also matched his career high in earned runs.

"I was missing on all of my pitches," Padilla said. "I had more control with my curveball, and better luck with my slower pitches, but my fastballs were getting ripped."

Padilla allowed eight runs to the New York Mets in a 16-4 loss on April 19, 2005 when he was a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.

With Tampa Bay trailing, 6-4, in the fifth, consecutive singles by Ty Wigginton, Carlos Pena, Brendan Harris and Young tied the game at 6-6, knocking Padilla out of the game.

"Young is taking pitches now, that's why he's doing better," said Madden of the right fielder's run-scoring single.

Rookie reliever A.J. Murray, who was making his major league debut, sandwiched a walk around two flyouts, loading the bases before Upton walked to plate Harris, to give the Devil Rays a 7-6 lead.

Crawford then hit an 0-2 pitch into the right-center field gap, clearing the bases for a 10-6 edge.

"The rookie threw two fastballs, then a breaking ball up," Crawford said. "I just took a good swing and ended up hitting it hard."

Wigginton added an RBI single in the seventh to give Tampa Bay an 11-7 lead.

"We just couldn't get it done," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "Those guys can hit fastballs and they took advantage of it."

Dukes led off the first with his seventh home run, but Sammy Sosa hit a two-run blast in the fourth to give Texas a 2-1 edge.

"Sosa got us going," Washington said. "We put some innings together, but we just couldn't stop their offense tonight."

It was the ninth blast of the season for Sosa and the 597th of his career.

"The home run was on a breaking pitch," Sosa said. "I just tried to put my head down and make contact."

The 38-year-old has now homered in a major league-record 45 different parks and is three shy of becoming the fifth man to reach the 600 mark.

One out later Victor Diaz hit his second homer of the season into the right field seats to increase the lead to 3-1.

The Devil Rays responded in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run single by Young and an RBI groundout by Upton to regain a 4-3 lead.

After the Rangers took a 6-4 lead in the top of the fifth on a run-scoring single by Michael Young and a two-run homer by Teixeira, Tampa Bay responded with the six runs in the bottom half.

Teixeira had three hits and Sosa added an RBI single in the seventh for Texas, which has lost seven of its last nine games.

"We know exactly what's going on here," a frustrated Teixeira said. "If we have a good offensive night, our pitching is off. If we have a good pitching night, our offense is off. We also have guys dropping like flies injury-wise."