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Tired Pirates, Rays to meet in rubber game

Jun 29, 2008 - 1:01 PM Tampa Bay (48-32) at Pittsburgh (38-42) 1:35 pm EDT

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Very few teams want to go past nine innings, but the Pittsburgh Pirates are serving notice they are willing to go the extra mile if needed.

The Pirates, fresh off their sixth straight extra-inning win, will try to take the rubber game of a three-game interleague set Sunday when they face the Tampa Bay Rays.

Pittsburgh, which improved to 8-3 in extra-inning games this season, managed to keep an explosive Tampa Bay offense quiet over the final five frames after a leadoff homer by the Rays' Jonny Gomes in the eighth inning until Jason Bay hit a walk-off solo home run in the 13th gave the Pirates a 4-3 win Saturday.

With both teams likely to feel the effects of the 3-hour, 53-minute night game for Sunday's afternoon start roughly 14 hours after Saturday's contest ended, the Pirates hope to get another strong start from Tom Gorzelanny (6-6, 6.43 ERA).

The lefthander collected his second win in three starts in Tuesday's 12-5 victory over the New York Yankees after allowing three runs and six hits over six innings.

Gorzelanny have his hands full against Andy Sonnanstine (8-3, 4.85), who will targeting his third straight win. The righthander yielded two runs and six hits over five innings in Tuesday's 6-4 win at Florida and has not lost in his last five starts.