Who says a team has to hit the baseball to win?
The Tampa Bay Rays closed out the first half of their season Sunday afternoon by sweeping the Houston Astros with a 4-3 victory. That left the Rays one game over .500 after 91 games, three games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East.
The truth be told, the Rays didn’t exactly bludgeon the Astros in the series. They won with four hits, seven hits and five hits in the three games. However, Houston was able to get only four runs and 15 hits .
If there was a common theme, it was that the Rays got pretty good starting pitching and lights-out relief pitching. All-star Brad Boxberger appeared in three games, got three saves and did not give up a hit. Kevin Jepson appeared in all three games without giving up a hit.
For the Rays, scratching for hits was enough. For instance, the Rays went ahead 4-3 on John Jaso’s bases-loaded walk and Grady Sizemore’s groundout.
Matt Moore got his first victory since having Tommy John surgery 14 months ago for the Rays.
