Baldelli HR in return a nice moment for Rays

There's no such thing as a feel-good loss in a pennant race, but Rocco Baldelli's seventh-inning pinch-hit home run in his first major-league appearance of the season eased the sting of the Rays' 8-7 loss to the Orioles on Sunday.

"That's beautiful, coming off the bench against a guy (LHP Michael Gonzalez) that really looked dominating last night," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It was a great moment for him. It's a great moment for us as a group."

Baldelli, who began the season as a Rays' roving assistant coach and rehabbed a shoulder injury along the way, hit his first home run since Sept. 3, 2009, when he was with the Red Sox and got one against Tampa Bay's David Price.

He also homered in his most recent previous at-bat with the Rays, in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series.

"Oh man, I would have taken a strikeout if we had won the game, to be honest with you," said Baldelli, who hit a 2-1 slider 358 feet on his first swing.

Baldelli's once-promising career has been plagued by injuries and a medical condition, and when the Rays hired him as a traveling minor-league coach during spring training, he didn't express much optimism about playing this year.

But a shoulder injury responded to rest, and Baldelli signed a minor-league contract in mid-July. He was selected from Triple-A Durham on Wednesday, and the Rays plan to use him as a right-handed hitting specialist against lefty pitchers.

"On many occasions, I've wondered when my last game will ever be played," Baldelli said. "I mean, from the end of last year until now, I didn't know if I'd be back here playing. To come back and put a good swing on the ball the first (at-bat) back is nice."

Maddon said before Sunday's game he was still deciding whether Baldelli would start tonight in Boston against LHP Jon Lester.

No excusesRHP Dan Wheeler's appearance Sunday in the sixth inning was his first in eight games, and he walked two of the three batters he faced.

Told that Maddon took part of the blame because he hasn't been pitching Wheeler often enough to keep him sharp, Wheeler said he wouldn't accept that explanation.

"I didn't make (enough) pitches; that's all it was about," he said after taking the loss because the two men he walked scored. "You walk guys, good things don't happen."

RHP Chad Qualls followed Wheeler and had an even tougher outing. In succession, he gave up a groundball-RBI single to Josh Bell, fly ball- -RBI single to Brian Roberts, groundball-RBI single to Nick Markakis and a walk to Ty Wigginton on a 3-2 slider that just missed.

"It was a weird outing, because I feel like I threw the ball well," Qualls said. "I know the one Roberts hit wasn't a great pitch, but the other two balls were groundballs up the middle.

"The first one could have gone right at someone. You get a double-play ball, you're out of the inning and you're a hero. Unfortunately, it didn't go that way."

Knockout blow?With a 7-game lead in the wild-card race against Chicago, and a 7 1/2-game lead against Boston, the Rays have an opportunity to stick a dagger in the Red Sox during the next three nights in Boston. But Maddon said the focus is on chasing the Yankees, who lead the AL East by 2 1/2 games.

"I want us to keep in mind that we're trying to win the division, period," Maddon said. "It's not about worrying about the Red Sox catching us. It's about us catching the Yankees,

"Going to Boston, of course if you win those couple of games, it makes it much more difficult for them. But the way I look at it is, I want us to thinking about catching and surpassing the Yankees."

This is the Rays' final series with the Red Sox this season, and they lead the season set 10-5, including 5-1 at Fenway Park. When the teams last met Aug. 27-29 at Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay took two of three, and all three games were decided by two runs or fewer.

Odds and endsCarl Crawford's first-inning triple gives him double-digit triples for the fifth time. ... RHP Jeff Niemann said he feels fine entering tonight's start and will draw on his five strong innings before giving up six runs in the sixth Tuesday against Toronto. ... With Single-A Hudson Valley's season ending Sunday, RHP Andy Sonnanstine is eligible to rejoin the rotation today. Had he been sent to Triple-A Durham, he couldn't have returned for 10 days.