Longoria homers, leads Rays over Orioles 5-4
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BALTIMORE (AP) — Evan Longoria homered, drove in two runs and scored twice, and the Tampa Bay Rays blew a four-run lead before rebounding to beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-4 on Wednesday.
Willy Aybar had two hits and an RBI for the Rays, who took two of three to improve their major league-leading road record to 31-17. Tampa Bay is 7-2 against Baltimore, including 5-1 at Camden Yards.
James Shields (8-9) got the win, despite allowing four runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings. The right-hander had lost eight of 10 decisions in 11 appearances since May 25.
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Rafael Soriano worked the ninth for his 24th save in 26 tries. Less than 24 hours earlier, the All-Star reliever botched a save opportunity in an 11-10 loss.
Ty Wigginton hit his 16th homer and second in two games for Baltimore. The Orioles stranded six and went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
Baltimore had the potential tying run at second base in the eighth, but pinch-runner Scott Moore was thrown out trying to advance on a one-out grounder to shortstop.
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Tampa Bay used one hit and three walks to go up 5-4 in the sixth. B.J. Upton hit a leadoff single and Brad Bergesen (3-8) issued two straight one-out walks to load the bases before Jason Berken got Jason Bartlett to hit into a forceout at the plate. Berken then walked Longoria on a 3-2 pitch to force in a run.
Bergesen allowed five runs and nine hits, struck out seven and walked three in 5 1-3 innings. He kept the Orioles close after yielding four runs over the first three innings.
After Longoria's 14th homer put Tampa Bay up 1-0 in the first, the Rays got four hits in the second inning, including an RBI single by Reid Brignac and a run-scoring double by Ben Zobrist.
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Aybar doubled in Longoria to make it 4-0 in the third.
Baltimore began its comeback with a three-run fourth. After Wigginton hit a two-run homer, Adam Jones singled and scored on a double by Jake Fox.
Luke Scott tied it with a run-scoring grounder in the fifth.
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NOTES: Rays OF Carl Crawford (testicular contusion) was given the day off. ... Baltimore's Nick Markakis snapped an 0-for-14 skid with a fifth-inning double. ... The Rays didn't make an error in the series and have only three errors in their last 25 games. ... Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena went 0 for 5 and had only one hit in the series. ... Baltimore fortified its weary bullpen by activating LHP Mike Gonzalez off the disabled list and recalling LHP Troy Patton from Triple-A Norfolk, but neither got in the game.