Tampa Bay edges past Oakland in 12 innings 8/14/08

The Tampa Bay Rays (73-47) beat the Oakland Athletics (55-65) 7-6 in 12 innings on Thursday night. History was snapped in Tampa Bay’s win, as Oakland reliever Brad Ziegler’s streak of 39 consecutive scoreless innings tied a 59 year old major league record for relievers. B.J. Upton of the Rays an RBI double that scored Akinori Iwamura, who walked, to give the Rays a 5-4 lead in the ninth. Oakland managed to get a run in the bottom of the ninth to get the score even at 5-5.

In the 12th inning, Tampa Bay’s Carlos Pena hit his 23rd homerun of the season, which gave Tampa Bay a 6-5 lead. Dioner Navarro added an RBI single for insurance, and it was definitely needed, as Oakland did score in the bottom of the 12th. They only scored once, however, and Tampa earned the 7-6 victory to remain 3 games ahead of Boston in the AL East.

Jason Hammel (4-3) was given the win, and Santiago Castilla (2-1) was given the loss. Trever Miller was given the save.

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