The Tampa Bay Rays end their streak of futility in Cleveland

Since the All-Star break, the Tribe was 7-1 and had been playing great baseball.  After one hiccup in Minnesota, the Indians beat Tampa Bay 3-1 last night in a game called off because of rain in the 7th inning.  Carmona pitched solid, and Cleveland looked impressive.

Until tonight, it had been 18 games in a row the Rays had lost in Cleveland.  Talk about a drought.  Tonight featured Mitch Talbot vs. David Price, a great pitching match-up.  Talbot was facing his former team; He was traded for Kelly Shoppach last year so you knew he was going to come out throwing some heat.

After Talbot retired the Rays in order to start the game, David Price tried to do the same thing.  Not so fast.  Trevor Crowe walked, and then Shin Soo Choo doubled down the left field line; Crowe scored all the way from 1st.  As a result, Price gets pissed and throws four straight pitches at 99 mph.  The 1st inning ends, and the Tribe has a 1-0 lead. 

Mitch Talbot continues his dominance, and strikes out the side in the 2nd inning.  Give him 5 straight strike outs.  He honestly looked unhittable.  After a solid drawn-out walk by Matt LaPorta, Shelley Duncan steps up to the plate and sends a bomb into the left field bleachers on the first pitch he sees.  Duncan hits his 6th home run of the year, and has really been swinging the bat well as of late.  The Tribe takes a 3-0 lead on a pitcher who started the All-Star game, with a 12-5 record and a 2.84 ERA.  I'm starting to love this new-found Tribe Swagger. 

Talbot sits BJ Upton down to start the 3rd inning for his sixth straight strikeout.  Former Indian Kelly Shoppach (who looks like he's been to Burger King a few times since his days in Cleveland) lays off a 2-2 pitch that was clearly Strike 3, and Talbot now has to share the Indian record of 6 consecutive K's with the likes of Bob Feller and Bartolo Colon.  Bartlett gets the Rays first hit but Ben Zobrist grounds out to end the inning.

Fast-forward to the top of the 5th, where BJ Upton gets real ignorant.  After arguing a few strike calls mid at-bat, he tosses his bat towards the dugout after what was Ball 3.  Sorry BJ, you need 4 of those to get a free pass.  Uptown sheepishly has to return to the batter's box where he subsequently thinks he has a hit but is robbed by Choo on an unreal sliding catch.  Shin-Soo seems to make at least one spectacular catch every night out.

Unfortunately after that, the Rays rattled off 2 hits and then Ben Zobrist crushed a home run to the same spot on the top of the railing in the left field bleachers that Shelley Duncan hit his.  After the umpires confirmed with the use of instant replay, the game was tied at 3-3.

In the top of the 6th, Carlos Pena hits a solo jack to center field to give the Rays a 4-3 lead.  Uptown follows that with a deep ground-rule double and knocks in another run, make it 5-3 Rays.
The Tribe's bats remained quiet, as Price settled down and started mowing down the Indians batters.

Frank Herman (who?) comes in for relief and immediately drills Bartlett to start the top of the 7th.  Surprise surprise, Carl Crawford doubles to left field and Bartlett scores making it 6-3.  The Indians go 1-2-3 in the 7th and as we head to the 8th, and we start wondering if the Rays might actually win a game in Cleveland.

Of Course the Indians would make things interesting; in the 8th inning David Price walked Luke Donald on 4 straight pitches to put our lead-off batter on 1st base. Trevor Crowe was up next, and after an intense battle he struck out on a nasty splitter.  My boy Asdrubal flies out to center field and after that, we could only hope Shin-Soo would come up with some magic.  Like clockwork, the Korean comes through with a hit to right field, and it was up to Carlos Santana to keep the inning alive. Santana battles to a full-count and strikes out on what would have been Ball 4.

Just for good measure, we drill Bartlett in the same spot, on his left bicep, in the top of the 9th but the Rays don't make it count this time.  We head to the bottom of the 9th and hope for some late 90's Tribe Magic. 

Jhonny Peralta was safe on his infield grounder to 3rd base that Evan Longoria bobbled, but true to the form of the terrible umpiring in the MLB this season, he is called out. Austin Kearns follows suit by striking out, and we’re down to our last batter, Matt LaPorta.  LaPorta battles tough as well, but strikes out to end the game. 

After 18 games in Cleveland, the Rays finally head back to the Cleveland Ritz-Carlton a winner.  David Price gets his 13th win and Mitch Talbot wonders why he fell apart in the 5th inning.  His 8 strike-outs would not end up being enough.  Look on the bright side; The Tribe is 7-2 since the All-Star Break and have won 10 out of their last 13 games at home.  Hopefully we can take the series tomorrow at 1:05 pm.  This new-look Cleveland Indians team has been resilient and hasn't lost two straight games since the All-Star break.  It was about time Tampa won a game here.