Rays clip Orioles
Pat Burrell hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and pinch-hitter Willy Aybar had one of four Tampa Bay homers as the Rays extended the Baltimore Orioles’ losing streak to 11 games with a 7-6 victory Monday night.
Ben Zobrist opened the eighth with a double off Chris Ray (0-4) and went to third on B.J. Upton’s grounder. Burrell’s fly ball against Danys Baez broke 6-6 tie.
Tampa Bay tied it at 6-6 on Aybar’s three-run shot in the seventh off reliever Matt Albers.
Gabe Kapler, Zobrist and Evan Longoria also homered for the Rays, who are 8-5 since an 11-game skid. Tampa Bay has hit 193 homers this season, breaking the team record of 190 set in 2006.
Baltimore got a two-run homer from Brian Roberts. The Orioles (60-96) are a season-worst 36 games under .500.
Lance Cormier (3-3) pitched a scoreless inning before Grant Balfour got the final out in the ninth with a runner on first for his second save.
After Matt Wieters had an RBI single during a two-run third, Roberts gave the Orioles a 4-2 advantage on his two-run shot in the fourth. Jeff Fiorentino, in the fifth, and Melvin Mora one inning later had run-scoring singles to make it 6-3.
Kapler and Zobrist hit solo homers to put the Rays up 2-0 in the first. Longoria’s 32nd homer pulled Tampa Bay to 4-3 in the fourth. Longoria has 110 RBI this season.
Braves 4, Marlins 0: Jair Jurrjens pitched seven outstanding innings, Chipper Jones homered and Atlanta blanked Florida, the Braves’ 15th win in 17 games, a stretch lifting them into playoff contention with less than a week to go in the regular season.
The Braves closed within two games of idle Colorado in the NL wild-card race with six remaining. Florida’s third loss in four games all but finishes off the Marlins, who dropped 5 1/2 games behind the Rockies and can do no better than tie for the wild card.