In spite of continuing their disturbing trend of striking out early, the Rays broke through with a four-run second inning. After Jesus Sucre came through with an RBI double, it was Corey Dickerson blasting a three-run home run to give the Rays the early advantage, just a night after Dickerson had two home runs to power the Rays to the victory. Tampa Bay added two more in the third inning thanks to a Logan Morrison solo home run and a Tim Beckham RBI single, and Jesus Sucre blasted a solo home run in the ninth inning to give the Rays seven runs and all the offense they would need.
The defending American League champions made sure they would not go quietly in spite of trailing by six runs early. The Indians got two in the bottom half of the third off of an RBI double from Bradley Zimmer, followed by a RBI single from Jason Kipnis. Michael Brantley added an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth inning to pull within 6-3.
Alex Cobb (4-3, 3.67 ERA) worked seven innings, most of which with a big lead, allowing six hits and three runs (all of them earned) while striking out seven and walking one. Danny Farquhar and Ryne Stanek contributed a scoreless eighth, while Alex Colome allowed just one run while closing out the game in the ninth.
On the other side the Indians went to the bullpen early after Josh Tomlin (2-5, 6.86 ERA) allowed six runs in just two and one-third inning of work. From there the Indians were able to get shutout baseball from USF product Dan Otero, Nick Goody, Boone Logan, Zach McAllister and Bryan Shaw before Shawn Armstrong allowed one run in the ninth inning.
The Rays return home to an off day on Thursday before beginning a three game series against the Yankees on Friday night. First pitch from the Trop on Friday is set for 7:10 and you can hear it beginning with pregame coverage at 6 on 620 WDAE and 95.3 FM.
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