Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees Battle to a 1-1 Tie

The Game: The Tampa Bay Rays put an end to their losing skid by playing to a 1-1 tie against the New York Yankess on Thursday afternoon at Charlotte Sports Park. Great pitching combined with a 21 mile per hour wind blowing in from centerfield led to six and a half scoreless innings before the first run crossed the plate.

They Rays broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the seventh inning. Casey Kotchman doubled to left with two outs to put a runner in scoring position. Then back to back walks by Sean Rodriguez and Robinson Chirinos loaded the bases for the Rays. Tim Beckham drew a bases loaded walk to push Kotchman across the plate and give them a 1-0 lead.

The Yankees battled back to tie the game in the top of the eighth inning. Gustavo Molina and Kevin Russo both singled to put two runners on the bases. Molino then scored on a ground ball off the bat of Brad Suttle what was misplayed by shortstop Ray Olmedo to score the tying run.

The game remained tied through the tenth inning when the game was declared a tie.

James Shields started for the Rays and allowed just 1 hit and 1 walk in 3 scoreless innings on the mound. RJ Swindle and Cory Wade each pitched 2 no-hit innings while Juan Cruz pitched 1 no-hit inning. Jake McGee was charged with a blown save as the lone run came while he was on the mound.

RP Top Prospect Watch:
Tim Beckham: 1 for 2 with a double, walk and an RBI.
Robinson Chirinos: 0 for 1 with a walk.
Brandon Guyer: 0 for 1.
Desmond Jennings: 0 for 3.

A Look Ahead: The Rays (1-4-1) travel to Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers to play two games against the Twins (3-2) on Friday. The "A" game features Alex Torres starting for the Rays against Kevin Slowey for the Twins. The "B" game will showcase Jeff Niemann versus Francisco Liriano. Also available to pitch for the Rays are Mike Ekstrom, Dane De La Rosa, Rob Delaney, Dirk Hayhurst and Cesar Cabral.