ST. PETERSBURG — Carlos Peña was happy with the called strike during his fifth-inning at-bat Thursday. He wasn’t too thrilled with the change-up down and away from Toronto’s Roy Halladay that followed.
“An unbelievable pitch,” Peña said.
But Peña loved the result, an opposite-field line drive that landed just fair and bounced into the left-field corner.
“I got a tough call on the pitch before, but I told myself to center myself and stay positive,” Peña said.
The double scored two runs and enabled the Rays to complete a sweep of the Blue Jays with a 3-2 victory.
“I love hitting the ball the other way,” Peña said. “It’s a great feeling.”
The hit broke a streak of 12 games in which Peña failed to drive in a run. Peña’s last RBI was a home run against the Florida Marlins on June 27.
“Really, that’s what cost me the game,” Halladay said. “It’s tough. A couple inches, it’s foul, and you get another chance. I didn’t think it was a bad pitch, probably a little more up than I wanted to. It was a tough spot. You get in a spot like that, and they’re pitching well, it makes it hard.”
Halladay got into that spot because he allowed a leadoff single to Michel Hernandez, the Rays’ number nine hitter. B.J. Upton followed with a single. Halladay got Carl Crawford to pop out to third base. But he couldn’t get Peña.
“I caused that trouble myself,” Halladay said. “It comes down to the one pitch, but some of the hits leading up to it are frustrating.”
Sweeeeep
The Rays completed their fourth sweep of a three-game series with Thursday’s win.
That it came during the final week of the first half of the season ensured the Rays would not take a prolonged losing streak into the All-Star break, like they did last year when they lost seven straight before the break.
“We know what happened last year,” Peña said. “It’s something that’s been addressed, ‘Hey guys, let’s finish this strong.’ ”
The sweep enabled the Rays to keep pace with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
“We got to win every game,” reliever Grant Balfour said. “You look at the teams ahead of us, they’re not losing. We got to win every game and think about ourselves.”
Balfour’s back
After ending his scoreless streak by allowing two runs Wednesday, Balfour stopped a Blue Jays rally in the seventh inning when he came in with the bases loaded and got Kevin Millar to pop up to Ben Zobrist at second base and Vernon Wells to fly out to B.J. Upton in center field to preserve the Rays’ 3-2 lead.
“Grant set it up,” Maddon said. “He got us out of a tough spot there.”
Balfour returned to pitch a perfect eighth inning.
“I try to get the job done,” he said. “Some days it’s not as easy as others.”
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