Rays hope Garza can stay hot against O's

Baseball Betting Lines

09/03/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Rays need all the wins they can get if the team is going to capture home-field advantage throughout the upcoming American League playoffs. With Matt Garza on the mound against the Baltimore Orioles, the postseason contenders figure to have a good chance of coming out on top tonight.

Garza puts a sensational career record versus Baltimore on the line in this evening's clash between the divisional foes from Camden Yards. The standout righty is 8-1 with a 3.14 earned run average over 11 lifetime matchups with the Orioles, which includes a 5-0 mark over seven starts as the visitor in this series.

The 26-year-old wasn't at his best in his most recent appearance at Camden Yards, however. Garza was rocked for seven runs and 10 hits over 6 1/3 innings while obtaining a no-decision in an 11-10 Orioles' victory, with Baltimore slugging four home runs off the Tampa hurler.

Garza has been significantly better as of late, as he brings a three-start unbeaten streak into tonight's tilt. The former first-round draft choice yielded just one run over a combined 14 1/3 innings in back-to-back wins over Texas and Oakland on August 17 and 22, respectively, then held Boston to a run through seven frames in a no-decision this past Saturday.

He'll be attempting to notch his 14th win of the season and move the Rays closer to first place in the AL East in the opener of this three-game series. Tampa Bay presently sits 1 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the race for the league's best record, but does a 6 1/2-game advantage on the Red Sox for the lead in the AL Wild Card standings.

The Rays won for the fourth time in their last five games on Wednesday, with David Price tossing eight outstanding innings and Evan Longoria delivering a tie-breaking RBI single in the bottom of the eighth that lifted the club to a 2-1 verdict over Toronto.

With the score tied at 1-1, Ben Zobrist drew a one-out walk against Blue Jays reliever Shawn Camp and moved to second when Carl Crawford greeted Scott Downs with a base hit. Longoria then singled through the left side, with Zobrist beating the throw to the plate to put Tampa Bay in front.

The clutch hit enabled Price (16-6) to win his 16th game of the year after the All-Star lefty allowed just one run -- a John Buck homer in the fifth inning -- and four hits while striking out seven.

"Unbelievable," second baseman Sean Rodriguez told the Rays' official site about Price. "That's the Price we've come to know and love right there."

Rafael Soriano held Toronto scoreless in the ninth to register his major league-leading 40th save, though the Rays closer had to work out of a big jam to get to that number.

Soriano retired the first batter he faced before surrendering a triple to Vernon Wells that placed the potential tying run 90 feet away. He would bear down and get a key strikeout of Adam Lind, however, before Buck flied out to the warning track in left to end the threat.

The Rays have won nine of 12 meetings with the Orioles, owners of the AL's worst record, so far in 2010, and are 5-1 in games between the teams held at Camden Yards this year.

Baltimore had ripped off four consecutive wins before dropping the final two tests of a three-game home series with Boston earlier in the week, with the Red Sox taking Thursday's rubber match by a 6-4 count.

Boston jumped out to a big early lead by scoring five times against O's starter Brad Bergesen in the second inning, though three of those runs were unearned due to an error by Baltimore first baseman Ty Wigginton.

Bergesen (6-10) lasted 5 1/3 innings in all and was reached for eight hits while issuing five walks.

"I was getting ahead of guys and then I was not executing," he said following the game.

Baltimore did cut its deficit with a four-run sixth inning, capped by Matt Wieters' two-RBI single, and made things interesting in the ninth as well. Felix Pie and Wieters began the frame with consecutive hits off Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon and Corey Patterson bunted both runners over to put men on second and third with one out. However, Papelbon struck out the next two hitters to protect the two-run edge.

Wieters ended 3-for-4 for Baltimore and Nick Markakis collected two hits, including an RBI single.

Kevin Millwood will oppose Garza tonight and hopes to duplicate his most recent effort, when the veteran right-hander fired eight shutout innings to defeat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Saturday.

That performance was one of the few bright spots for Millwood this season. The offseason addition has produced an unwanted 3-14 overall record and had lost six consecutive decisions prior to Saturday's breakthrough, which lowered his ERA to a still-unimpressive 5.34.

Millwood's only 2010 encounter with the Rays took place in his season debut back on April 6, with the 35-year-old giving up two runs in a five-inning no- decision in St. Petersburg. He's 2-2 with a 5.80 ERA over six lifetime starts against Tampa Bay.