Rays-Blue Jays: Disney Magic Works as Tampa Bay Defeats Toronto

The Rays came together in true team spirit for a come from behind win in front of a crowd of just over 8,200 at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex Tuesday night.

Eric Hinske was a single away from hitting for the cycle as James Sheilds delivered 5 strong innings after a shaky two inning start leading to 3 runs, only one earned. The game was a huge posotive for the Rays, who, for once, strung multiple hits together for a strong offensive showing.

The game began amidst little fanfare, with Sheilds surrendering a leadoff single to Matt Stairs, Stairs extending his hitting streak to 10 games.

Then followed a rather farce-like top of the second. Sheilds walked the first two batters, and what followed was disastrous. A ground ball was shot straight to Eric Hinske, and, instead of a double play, Hinske bobbled the ball. Sheilds had made his way to first for the out, however, Hinske, in a rush of blood to the head pitched the ball well wide of Sheilds for the first error of the play. Following the wide pitch Navarro raced from home to back up the missed throw, prompting Lyle Overbay to leave third and head for home. Sheilds was already on his way to the plate, beating Overbay there, but was unable to hold onto the pass from Navarro, allowing Overbay to slide under Sheilds' defence of the plate.

In all, only two errors were charged, to Hinske (throw) and Sheilds (Fielding).

An infield ground ball resulted in the second run of the inning, after which Sheilds escaped having thrown 40 pitches through the first two innings, with only 23 for strikes.

The Rays countered promptly, just as well, with heads hanging after the horrors that occurred. Evan Longoria began the charge with his second home run of the year to just right of center field. Hinske followed with his first of three hits, knocking a double into the gap in right center field. Navarro continued the comeback with a bouncer into center just out of reach of the second baseman and shortstop, driving Hinske in to level the scores at 2-2

Sheilds settled well after his shakey start, allowing only two more runs (one on a home run by Vernon Wells), striking out five batters in total and not walking another batter for his last five innings. In all Sheilds was only tagged for two earned runs, lowering his ERA to 3.30.

The Offensive momentum continued in the bottom of the fourth, with Hinske (thanks to third base coaching from the crowd) hitting an easy triple thanks to the ball becoming lodged in the right field corner. Navarro followed with his second single of the game scoring Hinske and tying the game at 3-3. Haynes followed with a walk off a good pitcher-batter battle, which was in turn followed by Jason Bartlett's only hit of the game (a single) scoring Navarro.

All that remained was for Hinske to rock a solo home run to lead off the sixth, leaving him a single away from a cycle.

The bullpen delivered another solid finish following Sheilds' 109 pitches. Wheeler and Percival completed a perfect inning each with Percival getting a strike out. Percival has yet to surrender a run this year and has a perfect 0.00 ERA (Wheeler is not far behind with an ERA of 1.80)

Other Notes: Dan Johnson made his first appearance in the Tampa Bullpen and was all smiles.

The Rays return to Disney tonight for the second game of the series. First pitch 7:10.