ST. PETERSBURG — This time the party was at second base. That’s where Ben Zobrist finally stopped running after his line drive into the right-center field gap scored Carl Crawford with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth, and that’s where he was mobbed by his teammates.
The shaving cream pie-to-the-face followed shortly, courtesy of catcher Dioner Navarro.
“He smoked me,” Zobrist said.
It was the Rays 10, the Blue Jays 9 on a wild Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.
It could have been the Rays 9, the Jays a lot less if not for a poor night from Rays starter Scott Kazmir, who allowed seven runs in 6 1/3 innings and helped the Jays claw back from deficits of 5-2 and 9-6.
“They weren’t going away,” Zobrist said.
And the Rays weren’t about to cave in.
“It’s big winning a game like that,” Zobrist said. “It’s big for us, because we had a lot of that last year, and it creates a little bit of magic. In future games you think you can win like that.”
It was the Rays second walk-off win against the Jays during this three-game series that concludes with Thursday’s finale. Pat Burrell won Tuesday’s game with a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th.
Burrell ended a pitcher’s duel.
Zobrist ended a sloppy night by both starting pitchers.
Jays starter Brian Tallett allowed 11 hits for the second time in his career and eight runs for the second time this season.
“I don’t know who was pitching worse, (Tallett) or the kid across the way,” Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. “Both of them were lighting it up, that’s for sure. It was kind of a race of who was going to get run out of their first.”
That would be Tallett, who lasted three batters into the fourth inning.
Zobrist drove in the final three runs Tallett allowed with a three-run homer to left field in the fourth inning. It was the 17th home run of the season for the All-Star second baseman, and it gave the Rays an 8-5 lead.
But Kazmir and Grant Balfour combined to allow three runs in the seventh inning, and the Rays suddenly found themselves trying to pull out a game they appeared to have won before the fourth inning was over.
The Rays scored when B.J. Upton stole home in the first inning, and when Gabe Kapler walked with the bases-loaded in the third.
They scored when Burrell doubled to lead off the second inning, moved to third on a fly ball to center and came home on Navarro’s single.
They scored when Upton singled home Kapler in the second and when Bartlett doubled home Zobrist in the sixth. That made the score 9-6 Rays.
The Rays scored their most runs since June 25 when they hung 10 on the visiting Phillies. They had 17 hits. Their five through nine hitters were a combined 12-for-22 with a home run, three doubles, eight RBIs and six runs scored. Every starter in the Rays lineup had at least one hit. They had five doubles. They stole four bases.
And they almost lost.
“They kept coming back on us and coming back on us,” Zobrist said.
Crawford reached on a hit with one out in the ninth and stole second and third. Jays left-hander Jeff Downs came on to face Carlos Pena and walked the Rays first baseman to put runners on the corners.
Zobrist then followed with his first game-winning hit of his major league career, touching off a post-game celebration similar to the ones that were so familiar in 2008.
“What a game,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “If you were a fan, you were definitely entertained. If you were a manager, you were on the edge.”
Email Story
Printer Friendly 
Quick Job Search
@Nyx.replyAnswerText@