B.J. Upton homered and had an RBI double and James Shields struck out 10 as the Tampa Bay Rays earned a 4-3 victory over former ace Scott Kazmir and the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.
Shields (12-11) allowed three runs - two earned - on eight hits in six-plus innings to tie Kazmir for the most wins in Rays’ history with 55 and help Tampa Bay (77-48) move into a tie with the AL East-leading New York Yankees.
Rafael Soriano pitched a perfect ninth for his 38th save.
After Upton homered on the first pitch of the game off Kazmir, Jason Bartlett was hit by a pitch and Carl Crawford walked. Ben Zobrist singled both in for a 3-0 lead.
Upton made it 4-0 in the second with an RBI double, scoring Sean Rodriguez.
Hideki Matsui cut the lead in half with a two-run double. Peter Bourjos singled in the seventh, chasing Shields, and scored on Howie Kendrick's sacrifice fly.
Kazmir (8-11) allowed four runs - three earned - on five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts and four walks in losing his sixth consecutive home start.
Tampa Bay | LA Angels | |
James Shields | Player | Scott Kazmir |
Win | W/L | Loss |
6.0 | IP | 5.1 |
10 | Strikeouts | 4 |
8 | Hits | 5 |
3.00 | ERA | 5.06 |
Tampa Bay | LA Angels | |
B.J. Upton | Player | Howie Kendrick |
2 | Hits | 2 |
2 | RBI | 1 |
1 | HR | 0 |
6 | TB | 3 |
.400 | Avg | .667 |