Willy Aybar went 4 for 4, driving in the winning run with a double in the 8th inning as the Tampa Bay Rays downed the Kansas City Royals 4-2 Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium. The bullpen failed to hold the lead for KC starter Zack Greinke, who left the game after 7 innings with a 2-1 lead.
Tampa Bay scored first in the 2nd when Ben Zobrist, who hit the first of three singles in the inning, came home on a Jason Bartlett base hit.
The Royals tied it up in their half of the 2nd as Alberto Callaspo doubled to left to drive in Alex Gordon who had reached first base on a walk.
Kansas City went ahead 2-1 in the 7th, taking advantage of an Aybar error that put runners on first and third. Alberto Callaspo scored when David DeJesus hit into a fielder’s choice.
But the Rays got to the KC bullpen in the 8th, first scoring a pair of runs on back to back doubles to Pat Burrell and Aybar, erasing the Kansas City lead to put Tampa Bay on top, then scoring another run to make it 4-2 and to end the scoring for the night.
Chad Bradford (1-0) got the win. J.P. Howell picked up his 8th save. Juan Cruz (3-4) took the loss.
The two teams wrap up their weekend series Sunday afternoon at the K. Luke Hochevar (5-3) goes to the mound for KC against the Rays’ Matt Garza (6-7).
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