A day after the Rays do seemingly everything wrong, they come back and do nearly everything right in a 7-1 victory over the Phillies. The second game of the World Series rematch was much more eventful than the previous, with Garza throwing a gem, Burrell homering and Bartlett extending his hit streak to 18 games (ties a franchise record held by the long time Devil Ray great Quinton McCracken).
Matt Garza pitched 8 strong innings, giving up only 3 hits, striking out 7 and giving up 1 earned run. His only mistake was a ball Werth hit out of the ballpark for a solo shot. Equally as impressive, Joe Blanton matched Garza as best he could, going 7+ allowing 6 hits, striking out 10 and giving up 2 earned runs. He also only made one mistake the whole game, the only difference was Carlos Pena was on first base when he left a 0-1 fastball over the heart of the plate. Pat Burrell didn't miss it and launched it into the left field seats for just his second home run of the season.
Jason Bartlett continued his hit streak as part of a 5 run bottom of the eighth for the Rays. Bartlett led off the bottom of the seventh with a strikeout making him 0-3 on the night and it looked as though he wouldn't get another shot. Until the bottom of the eighth when Pat Burrell stepped up with bases loaded and 2 outs, Bartlett on deck. Burrell gets handcuffed on an inside fastball and hits a slow roller to Jimmy Rollins at shortstop, and due to the fantastic hustle of Ben Zobrist (who should be an All-Star, but thats for another blog) beats out the fielders choice at second, allowing the run to come in for insurance, and giving Jason Bartlett one last at-bat. And he would not blow his opportunity, she flared a sinking line drive into right field, just out of the outstretched glove of Chase Utley for a 2 rbi base hit.
Randy Choate came in for the top of the ninth and finished the game. Unfortunately, the Yankees, Blue Jays and Red Sox also won so the Rays didn't make up any ground, but they should still feel good about beating the World Champion Phillies.
Keywords: Bartlett, Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies, Tampa Bay Rays
