Rays Walk-Off In Victory Against Orioles With Joyce HR

Rays NewsThe Tampa Bay Rays Matt Joyce hit a home run  o lead off the ninth inning against Tommy Hunter of the Baltimore Orioles  giving the Rays an 8-7  walkoff win. Tampa Bay fell behind early 4-0  when Chris Davis hit a three-run home run in the top of the first.  Davis ended his night 4 for 4  and drove in four runs.

The Rays Fernando Rodney had not given up a run since last August 18,  blew his first save of the season in his first opportunity  allowing one run  on a Brian Roberts double that scored Nolan Reimold  and setting up Joyce’s  heroics.

Wei-Yin Chen  pitched into the sixth inning for Baltimore allowing two earned runs and striking out four. The Orioles bullpen, Luis Ayala, Pedro Strop  and Tommy Hunter  gave up six runs on 2 1/3 innings of work. Rays starter  Jeremy Hellickson pitched into the seventh inning and gave up five runs.

The two teams meet tomorrow in an afternoon contest with Miguel Gonzalez  starting for Baltimore and Roberto Hernandez starting for Tampa Bay