The Rays had a very good June posting a record of 16-11 and finished the month with an overall record of 45-36. But they finished the month in third place in the American League East.3.5 games behind the Yankees and 1 game behind the Boston Red Sox. TThe Rays played in six 1-run games in June and went 4-2 in those games. Several games just missed the cut to be included in the poll.
- June 7, 2011: Alex Cobb returns and gives Rays 6+ innings as Rays defeat Angels 4-1.
- June 11, 2011: Kotchman single in 9th ties game and Rays get 2 in 10th to defeat Orioles 7-5.
- June 19, 2011: Sam Fuld's defense assists Shields complete game 2-1 victory over the Marlins.
Game Highlights After The Jump
June 8, 2011: Reid Brignac shines as Rays down Angels 4-3 in 10 innings.
Reid Brignac had very little to smile about as he entered the game with a slash line of .180/.213/.189 but he was the star of the game in leading the Rays to a 4-3 victory. He hit a home run off Jared Weaver for the Rays first run in the top of the second inning, made several stellar defensive plays, and laid down the go ahead bunt in the tenth inning. The Rays half of the tenth inning was odd to say the least. Fernando Rodney walked John Jaso to lead off the inning and Evan Longoria making a pinch hitting appearance and reached safely on an infield hit. Brignac came to the plate with runners at first and second and fouled off the first sacrifice bunt attempt. John Jaso, to the surprise of everyone in the park, stole third base and Brignac laid down the safety squeeze bunt to give the Rays a 4-3 lead. Kyle Farnsworth worked the 10th inning earning his 13th save of the season.
June 14, 2011: James Shields hurls complete game shutout as Rays defeat Red Sox 4-0.
The Rays were returning home from an 11 game road trip through Seattle, Anaheim, Baltimore, and a single game in Detroit. The Rays finished the road trip with a 6-5 record after losing 3 of the first 4 to the Seattle Mariners. The Rays returning home coincided with the return of Carl Crawford to Tropicana Field for the first time as a member of the Red Sox. James Shields faced Carl Crawford with 2-out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the first and got Crawford to groundout to Casey Kotchman at first. Shields worked into trouble several more times but was able to induce three inning ending double play balls on his way to a complete game shutout. He surrendered only 5 hits while striking out 5 and walking 3.
June 24, 2011: James Shields third straight complete game as Rays defeat Astros 5-1.
James Shields pitched his third consecutive complete game (franchise first) giving up 3 hits while striking out 9 and walking 1. Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton hit back to back home runs in a four run outburst in the 3rd inning. Longoria entered the game hitting .108 over his last 10 games and chose not to wear batting gloves and responded by going 2-4 with 3 RBI.
June 26, 2011: Rays erupt for 19 hits and 14 runs and defeat Astros 14-10.
The Rays were looking for a road sweep versus the Astros and B.J. Upton hit a 3-run homer to give Jeff Niemann a 3-0 lead . The Astros responded with a single run in the bottom of the first and 2 runs in the bottom of the 2nd, one of which scored on a wild pitch by Niemann, to tie the game at 3. The Rays took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 3rd on a RBI groundout by B.J. Upton but Niemann was unable to keep the Astros at bay and gave up 2 runs and the Rays were trailing 5-4 after 3 innings. In the top of the 4th inning Ben Zobrist tied the game at 5-5 with an RBI double and Cesar Ramos was called to replace Jeff Niemann to hold the Astros offense in check. The Astros didn't seem to notice the change on the mound as they put up 2 more runs to take a 7-5 lead.
Evan Longoria hit what he thought was a homer (check out the lack of batting gloves) to score Johnny Damon but the umpire ruled the ball in play and Longoria was out a 2nd base but the play was overturned by replay and was ruled as a game tying homer. J.P. Howell entered the game in the bottom of the 7th and gave up a homer to Jeff Keppinger to put the Astros ahead 8-7. The Rays plated 4 runs in the top of the 8th on 2-RBI double by Matt Joyce and a 2-RBI single by Casey Kotchman to take a 11-8 lead going into the 9th. Joel Peralta came in to protect the lead and did so but not before giving up a 2-run homer to Matt Downs to cut the Rays lead to 11-10. Evan Longoria gave the Rays the final exclamation point on the afternoon by hitting a 3 run homer in the top of the ninth and the Rays completed the sweep of the Astros with a 14-10 victory. The highlight of the ninth inning was Wade Davis pinch hitting and delivering a single, advancing to second base on a wild pitch and to third base on a groundout, and cut down at the plate on a groundout to second.
June 28, 2011: David Price is stellar and Evan Longoria hits walkoff homer to bail out bullpen.
David Price pitched 7.2 innings giving up 2R/2ER on 6 hits striking out 12 and walking only 1 and was the pitcher of record before Kyle Farnsworth gave up a solo homer to lead off the top of the 9th to tie the game at 3-3. Evan Longoria led off the bottom half of the ninth inning and hit the second pitch he saw for a game winning home run to give the Rays a 4-3 lead. The walkoff was welcome relief for Longoria who the previous night had made an error and overran Ben Zobrist on the basepaths on a fly out,