Alberto Callaspo’s sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning broke a tie and the Kansas City Royals added an insurance run in Friday’s 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
With things even, Callaspo brought home Scott Podsednik with a deep flyout to left, and two batters later, Mitch Maier singled in a run that would stand to be the difference-maker.
The Rays pulled back within a run in their final at-bats against closer Joakim Soria on Evan Longoria’s sacrifice fly. Soria got B.J. Upton to line out with the winning runs on base for his sixth save.
Josh Rupe (1-1) tossed one inning of relief for the win. Starter Brian Bannister took a no-decision, allowing one run on two hits in seven innings.
Jose Guillen tied the game at 1-1 with a seventh-inning double after Longoria’s home run in the second started the scoring.
Randy Choate (0-2) allowed one unearned run in 2/3 of an inning to take the loss.
Kansas City | Tampa Bay | |
Brian Bannister | Player | Jeff Niemann |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
7.0 | IP | 7.1 |
3 | Strikeouts | 3 |
2 | Hits | 3 |
1.29 | ERA | 1.23 |
Kansas City | Tampa Bay | |
Mitch Maier | Player | Evan Longoria |
2 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 2 |
0 | HR | 1 |
2 | TB | 5 |
.667 | Avg | .667 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Kansas City | 6 | 0 | 7 | .222 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Tampa Bay | 4 | 1 | 7 | .143 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 |