Rays down Royals in 3

Hit .462 in the series

(op) Kansas City -  A great series was enjoyed by the fans of both the Kansas City Royals and the Tampa Bay Rays.  The Royals fans were not disillusioned though as over the years, they have built a tolerance for losing.  Games One and Three were won by Tampa Bay, while Kansas City hung on to game 2 for their lone victory.

Game 1 saw Luis Mendoza take the mound for the home crowd in KC while the Jays sent Price to the hill.  The crowd was into the game from the beginning and excited that neither Hochehaver nor Chen started the game.  Scoreless first for both sides, but in the top of the 2nd Falu misplayed a groundball then hurried his throw over Hosmer. Hosmer fired back to Falu but the runner kept going, Falu with an easy shot to gun him down at third, threw the ball right past Moustakis. If it hadn't been for Escobar backing up the play, Jennings would have scored then. Two errors on one play, and that was the way it went for the Royals the rest of the day.  A flyball scored Jennings 1-0. Bottom of the 2nd, Butler led off with a massive home run to left field making it 1-1.  Top 3rd Zobrist ripped one over the right field wall 2-1 TB. The next batter walked before Mendoza grooved one for Evan Longoria (.462 in series), who promptly smashed it over the left centerfield wall. 4-1  TB scored 3 more in the 5th and another in the 7th. KC made a run at it in the bottom of the 8th but came up short. Final TB 8  KC 5

Game 2 saw Shields go the distance for TB but took the loss as he gave up 4 runs on 7 hits.  Guthrie scattered 8 hits over 6 2/3 while allowing 3 runs. Crow came in during the 7th inning with runners on the corners and two outs. He got a pop out. Crow and Holland finished by pitching scoreless 8th & 9th innings.  Francouer and Butler homered for KC and Scott homered for TB.

Game 3 for KC was the one that got away.  After leading for almost the entire game, the bullpen falter in the bottom of the 9th and gave up two runs to lose. Longo hit a solo shot for TB while KC had nothing leave the park except the pitch they threw. Hellickson was treated poorly and as expected Chen was roughed up although he only gave up 2 earned runs in 4 2/3. Holland who saved game 2 took the loss giving up two hits and the winning run in just 1/3 of an inning
--submitted by Orion Bell--