Major League Baseball

Rays 2, Angels 1(10)

Published Apr. 30, 2011 6:30 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

A game filled with strong pitching ended on one bad pitch.

Matt Joyce scored from third on a wild pitch with two outs in the 10th inning and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Los Angeles Angels 2-1 on Saturday.

Joyce opened the 10th with a double off Fernando Rodney (0-1). After Ben Zobrist lined out and Casey Kotchman moved Joyce to third with a grounder, Rodney threw a 1-2 pitch into the dirt well off the plate that eluded catcher Hank Conger.

''Hank did all he could,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ''That would have been an incredible stop.''

Tampa Bay's James Shields took a shutout into the ninth before giving up a double to Torii Hunter to open the inning. Kyle Farnsworth came in and Hunter later scored to tie it at 1 on Howie Kendrick's grounder.

Joyce also homered for the Rays, who have six of seven. Joel Peralta (1-0) struck out two during a perfect 10th.

Angels starter Joel Pineiro gave up one run and four hits over seven innings in his first start this year. He started the regular season on the 15-day disabled list due to right shoulder tightness.

''It was a great game all around,'' Pineiro said. ''Both pitchers were throwing strikes and being aggressive in the zone. It was just too bad we came up short in the end.''

Shields allowed one run, six hits, one walk and tied a career-high with 12 strikeouts in eight-plus innings. He had a stretch of 21 scoreless innings end.

Shields was coming off consecutive four-hit victories over Toronto and the Chicago White Sox. The pair of wins, in which the right-hander allowed just one run, followed a stretch of nine straight winless starts, dating back to last year.

Joyce made it 1-0 on his homer leading off the fifth.

''I left that one pitch up and he did what he was suppose to do with it,'' Pineiro said.

Shields was perfect through one out in the fifth when Kendrick singled to left. The Angels then loaded the bases on singles by Erick Aybar and Conger, but Shields recovered to strike out Peter Bourjos and Alexi Amarista.

Kendrick went 2 for 4 and has 49 hits in 108 at-bats overall against Tampa Bay.

Pineiro retired eight in a row to begin the game before Reid Brignac's third-inning single.

The Angels look to win the series on Sunday with Jered Weaver (6-0) facing Rays' rookie Alex Cobb, who will be making his major league debut.

Weaver has a chance to become the majors first pitcher to go 7-0 through May 1st since Sadie McMahon was 9-0 in 1891 for Baltimore of the American Association.

''He's very competitive,'' Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. ''He's just one of those guys that can stay hot for awhile. It doesn't surprise me.''

NOTES: Pineiro struck out three, giving him 999 in his career. ... Los Angeles 3B Maicer Izturis, limited to one at-bat over the previous four games due to a sore left hamstring, was back in the starting lineup. He was hitless in five at-bats. ... Bourjos extended his hitting streak to 12 games with an eighth-inning single.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball