Orioles edge Rays as Davis continues power binge

St. Petersburg, FL – For the past week, Chris Davis has been the straw that stirs the Baltimore Orioles' drink.

Davis homered in his franchise record-tying sixth straight game and the Orioles blanked the Tampa Bay Rays, 1-0, in the middle installment of a regular season-ending three-game set.

Davis, who has hit seven homers in his last six contests, tied the franchise mark set by Reggie Jackson. Jackson accomplished the feat with Baltimore from July 18-23, 1976.

"It kind of blows my mind to even be mentioned in the same breath as Reggie, but it's more about the win than anything else," Davis said.

Acquired in a midseason trade from the Texas Rangers last year, the 26-year- old has hit .429 (9-of-21) with 13 RBI and nine runs scored during his homer streak.

Rookie Miguel Gonzalez (9-4) struck out seven and allowed just two hits and a pair of walks over 6 1/3 scoreless frames for the Orioles, who sit a game behind the New York Yankees for the top spot in the American League East with just one to play. The Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox in 12 innings later on Tuesday.

Jim Johnson worked around a one-out walk and notched his 51st save of the season.

The O's moved to 29-9 in one-run games this year.

James Shields (15-10) fanned a franchise-record 15 for Tampa Bay, which was eliminated from playoff contention due to the Oakland Athletics' victory over the Texas Rangers on Monday.

"He was outstanding," Rays manager Joe Maddon said of Shields. "Great fastball, great changeup and threw the curve a couple times. That was brilliant."

Shields surrendered just two hits in his third complete game of the season. He's 7-3 with a 1.99 ERA over his last 12 starts.

The Rays had won 11 of their last 12 games coming in.

Shields was perfect through 4 2/3 innings before Davis cracked a no-doubt shot onto the roof of the center field restaurant for his 33rd homer of the year.

"He (Shields) made one mistake, and fortunately Chris was on it," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said.

Baltimore's only other hit was Nate McLouth's sixth-inning single.

Game Notes

The Rays were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position ... This is the fifth time since the All-Star break that Tampa Bay has been shut out 1-0 ... Shields has 223 strikeouts on the year.