Rays climb to first in AL East; top Yankees in 11

Baseball Betting Lines

05/14/2008 - St. Petersburg, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gabe Gross had the game-winning single off Mariano Rivera in the 11th inning to lead the Tampa Bay Rays past the New York Yankees, 2-1, and into first place in the AL East.

Akinori Iwamura went 2-for-5, extending his hitting streak to 11 games, for the Rays, who have won six in a row and are seven games over .500 (23-16) for the first time in franchise history. Cliff Floyd chipped in a pair of hits, while Jonny Gomes and Carlos Pena scored for Tampa Bay, which moved a half game ahead of Boston for first in the division after the Red Sox suffered a 5-4 loss Tuesday at Baltimore.

The Rays extended their franchise-record home winning streak to 11 games by taking the second installment of the four-game set from Tropicana Field.

Tampa Bay starter Edwin Jackson was brilliant despite the no-decision, throwing seven innings and giving up just five hits and a walk, while fanning five batters. Troy Percival blew his second save of the year, as he surrendered the game-tying home run to Hideki Matsui in the ninth.

J.P. Howell (3-0) got the win as he pitched two innings of no-hit ball.

Jason Giambi went 2-for-2 and drew a pair of walks for the Yankees, who have lost five of seven and fell to fourth place in the division, just a half-game ahead of last-place Toronto. Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to five games with a stand-up triple in the sixth inning, but was left stranded when Bobby Abreu and Matsui were retired.

Chien-Ming Wang started for New York and went seven strong innings, giving up just one run on seven hits. Rivera (0-1) absorbed the loss after he allowed his first run all season on three hits in just over an inning of work.

"It's going to happen," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "Mo has been outstanding for us all year long and it's going to happen. It's part of the game."

Floyd worked a walk off Rivera to begin the 11th inning, but was replaced on the bases by Gomes, who stole second. Gross then singled up the middle to drive in the winning run against Rivera, who hadn't been scored upon in his previous 14 appearances this season.

The Rays struck in the fourth inning. Pena led off with a double, moved to third on a Floyd groundout and crossed home when Eric Hinske belted a single to right.

The Yankees wasted a chance in the seventh. Melky Cabrera advanced to third on a Jackson wild pitch, but pinch-hitter Shelley Duncan fanned to end the inning.

The Rays had two runners on in the eighth, but Joba Chamberlain escaped the jam for the Yankees.

Percival took the mound in the ninth for the Rays and got Abreu to fly out to left. The next batter, Matsui, took a 1-1 fastball just inside of the right field pole to tie the game.

"I'm unhappy we had to go to extra innings," Percival said. "I threw the pitch I wanted to throw...there are probably three hitters in the league that hit that out."

Kyle Farnsworth pitched the bottom of the ninth and got Gross to fly out. Dioner Navarro then drew a walk, but Jason Bartlett and Iwamura were retired and the game went to extra innings.

Game Notes

Tampa is just 17-27 in the series since the start of the 2006 campaign...The Rays improved to 3-0 in extra inning games this season...This was the first extra-inning contest for the Yankees in 2008.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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