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Rays show grit in 2nd straight win, 7-6 over O's

The Associated Press

Gabe Kapler is congratulated by Ben Zobrist after Kapler's first-inning home run.

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By TONY FABRIZIO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 29, 2009

Updated: 09/29/2009 06:02 am

ST. PETERSBURG - Again, the Rays showed they still have some fight left in them in 2009.

The day after rallying from a five-run deficit with two outs in the eighth inning to beat the Rangers in Texas, Tampa Bay fought back from three runs down to open their final homestand with a 7-6 victory against the last-place Orioles on Monday night.

Willy Aybar's pinch-hit three-run homer off Matt Albers in the seventh inning tied the game 6-6, and Pat Burrell's sacrifice fly in the eighth drove Ben Zobrist home for what proved to be the winning run, as the Rays (80-76) moved to within two victories of finishing with at least a winning record.

"Right now, we're just trying to persevere to the end, play hard and pull some wins out," Zobrist said after make his first start at first base and going 2-for-4 with a home run and double and a stellar late-game catch in right field.

"It was nice to come back (Sunday) on the road, then to do the same thing at home, it definitely makes us feel good going into this last week. We want to finish strong really badly."

Gabe Kapler and Evan Longoria also hit solo home runs for the Rays, who set a franchise record for home runs in a season with 193. The previous high for home runs was 190 in 2006.

Aybar pinch hit for Fernando Perez with two on and two out and hit an 80-mph slider from Albers over the right-field wall.

Zobrist opened the Rays' eighth with a double to the wall in right-center off Chris Ray (0-4) and aggressively went to third base on B.J. Upton's groundout to shortstop. Burrell's sacrifice fly off ex-Ray Danys Baez followed, and the Orioles were on their way to their 11th consecutive loss.

Lance Cormier (3-3) pitched a scoreless inning to pick up the win, and Grant Balfour got the final out for his second save.

Solo home runs in the first by Kapler and Zobrist off Mark Hendrickson gave the Rays a 2-0 lead, but the Orioles tied the game in the third and pulled ahead 4-2 in the fourth against Jeff Niemann, who saw his American League Rookie of the Year hopes take another hit.

Niemann entered leading American League rookies in ERA (3.81), winning percentage (.667) and complete-game shutouts (two), but trailing Detroit's Rick Porcello in wins (14-12).

He hasn't won since Aug. 24, and Monday, he showed little of the command that allowed him to go 8-1 during June, July and August. Manager Joe Maddon replaced him with Andy Sonnanstine in the fourth after he gave up a two-run homer to Brian Roberts, giving the Orioles their 4-2 lead.

"He seemed totally out of sync," Maddon said of Niemann. "Nothing wanted to work. He just had no command today, and I truly believe a large part of it is fatigue. He's fine, he's healthy, he's good; I just think this is later in the year than normal, and he probably tried to manufacture stuff he didn't feel tonight."

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