Rays Complete Sweep, Beat Orioles 5-3

The Rays continue to love life on the road, winning their 8th straight road game an moving to 11-4 away from the Trop this season. They've scored 92 runs in those 15 games. Not bad.

This stop on the Wade Davis "Torpedo of Truth: Less Velocity Equals Better Results" tour didn't go as well as planned. He got through five innings but had location issues all afternoon, walking five and hitting one. Here's the strikezone plot of his day:

via www.brooksbaseball.net

It would be kind to say he was erratic. Even with his wildness, Davis managed to make pitches when he needed to, escaping trouble a few times. We know that starting pitchers aren't going to be great every time out, that's why bullpens exist. Today, the Rays bullpen was excellent.

Rob Delaney, recalled to replace Brandon Guyer made his debut and struck out one in a perfect 6th inning. He needed only 11 pitches and flashed a nice changeup to strikeout Izturis. Delaney also looked good in facing a lefty, getting Brian Roberts to pop out to end the inning. I'm not sure how long he'll be in the pen, but I liked my first impression. Joel Peralta and Kyle Farnsworth combined for the final 3IP to shut the door.

While every Rays batter reached base today the offense was lead by Matt Joyce and B.J. Upton. Joyce was 2-4 with two doubles, and Upton also went 2-4 but drove in four of the Rays five runs. Upton  took two pitches right back up the middle to tally his four RBI. The last two were especially key as the Orioles had made it a one run game the previous inning. In a post game interview, Upton told Todd Kalas that he would play the first two games of the series in Cleveland, sitting out that series finale and the first game of the next home stand.