Carlos Peña homered twice and drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning to finish with six RBI, helping the Tampa Bay Rays rally last night for a 10-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Peña hit a two-run homer off Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie in the first. He made it 5-5 in the seventh with a three-run shot off left-hander Jamie Walker, who entered the game after Guthrie retired the first batter of the inning.
The 2007 AL Comeback Player of the Year when he hit 46 homers and drove in 121 runs, Peña has five homers in 10 games this season. He drew the bases-loaded walk off Dennis Sarfate (2-1) on a check swing that could have been called a third strike to put Tampa Bay ahead 6-5.
The Rays broke it open with four more runs in the inning on B.J. Upton's two-run single, Eric Hinske's RBI double and Shawn Riggans' run-scoring single – all off Greg Aquino, the fourth Baltimore pitcher.
Al Reyes (1-1) pitched two-thirds of an inning to get the win after being arrested early yesterday at a Tampa bar and charged with being in a fight that disturbed the peace. He apologized for the incident, which occurred while celebrating his 38th birthday, and the Rays said before the game that he would not face disciplinary action.
Guthrie scattered eight hits over 6 1/3 innings. The right-hander, who lost to Tampa Bay on Opening Day, struck out four and walked one before being replaced by Walker with three left-handed batters in a row headed to the plate.
Akinori Iwamura reached on an infield single and Carl Crawford's pop fly dropped in shallow center field for his 1,000th career hit before Peña's second homer. Sarfate followed Walker and allowed three runs, one hit and four walks in one inning.
“It's not the end of the world,” Sarfate said. “It's still early. . . . We'll win tomorrow and forget about it.”
The Orioles have lost three straight following a six-game winning streak that had them off to their best start in a decade.
Other games of note:
YANKEES 4, RED SOX 1:Chien-Ming Wang gave up only a home run by J.D. Drew that was nearly caught and a bunt single as New York beat host Boston. Wang (3-0) allowed only one other runner, on an error. A struggling Jason Giambi gave New York a 2-1 lead with a leadoff homer in the seventh inning off Mike Timlin (0-1). Jose Molina then doubled, took third on Alberto Gonzalez's sacrifice and scored on Melky Cabrera's sacrifice fly.
TWINS 5, ROYALS 0:Livan Hernandez scattered seven hits over seven innings to win his third straight start, and is off to his best start since 2002 with San Francisco. Six of the hits Hernandez allowed were singles. He struck out three and walked one for the visiting Twins.
TIGERS 5, WHITE SOX 2:Detroit regrouped after losing Dontrelle Willis to a knee injury in the first inning, and Magglio Ordoñez had a bases-loaded single to help the visiting Tigers to their third win. Willis slipped as he delivered a pitch in the first, hyperextended his right knee and managed to throw only 14 pitches before being removed.
PHILLIES 5, CUBS 3:Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer and had a tiebreaking double in the sixth inning, helping the host Phillies snap Chicago's five-game winning streak.
METS 4, BREWERS 2:Nelson Figueroa earned his first major league win in five years, and host New York got a good effort from its bullpen to win its third straight. Carlos Delgado hit one of New York's three RBI singles. Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy each had an RBI double for the Brewers, who dropped their third straight after opening the season 6-1.
