A wild pitch by Fernando Rodney with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning allowed Matt Joyce to score, giving the Tampa Bay Rays a 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Joyce, who homered earlier in the game for Tampa Bay, scored both Rays runs on the day. The Angels ran into a buzzsaw in James Shields on Saturday, but were able to wait until he was out of the game to do their damage, tying the game in the ninth to send the game to extra innings.
Shields struck out 12 in eight innings, and was going for his third straight complete game. He opened the ninth inning allowing a leadoff double to Torii Hunter, and was pulled by manager Joe Maddon in favor of Kyle Farnsworth. Two groundouts later, the game was tied, although second baseman Ben Zobrist likely would have had a play at home plate on Hunter had Zobrist not bobbled the ground ball off the bat of Howie Kendrick.
The Angels got a very good season debut from Joel Pineiro on Saturday. Pineiro, making his first start of the season after missing 26 games with tightness in his right shoulder, allowed just one run on four hits in seven innings, the 20th quality start in 27 games by Angels starting pitchers this season.
Shields took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, when a Howie Kendrick single broke it up. The loss snapped an Angels winning streak of four straight games in Tampa Bay. The Angels will send ace Jered Weaver to the mound on Sunday looking for a series win, facing Andy Sonnanstine of the Rays.
For more news and information on the Angels, or on today's game, be sure to read the SB Nation blog Halos Heaven.