Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Tampa Bay 4, Minnesota 1
When: 7:10 PM ET, Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Temperature: Indoors
Umpires: Home - Hunter Wendelstedt, 1B - Alan Porter, 2B - Mike Estabrook, 3B - Jerry Layne
Attendance: 12777

Rays 4, Twins 1: Matt Joyce and Kelly Johnson each knocked in two runs as host Tampa Bay scored four times in the fourth inning and held on to extend its winning streak to six.

Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer (3-3) allowed one unearned run and three hits over six innings for the win, striking out two without walking a batter. Alex Torres and Jake McGee each pitched a perfect inning for the Rays and Fernando Rodney gave up two hits in the ninth before striking out the next three for his 21st save.

Joe Mauer recorded a double and a single for the Twins, who lost for the ninth time in 10 contests. Minnesota rookie Kyle Gibson (1-2) yielded four runs on four hits and four walks over six innings in his third career start.

Gibson allowed only one hit through the first three innings before Desmond Jennings and Luke Scott opened the fourth with consecutive walks. After two outs and another walk, Joyce lined a two-run single up the middle and Johnson’s double to the left-center field gap brought home two more for a 4-0 lead.

Brian Dozier was hit by a pitch, went all the way to third on Archer’s errant throw on a pick-off attempt and scored on Ryan Doumit’s sacrifice fly to bring the Twins within 4-1 in the sixth. The Rays were mistake-free from there to seal their seventh straight victory over Minnesota, dating back to last season, and improved to a season-best 11 games over .500 (51-40).

GAME NOTEBOOK: Rays pitchers have recorded quality starts in 14 of their last 16 games. … Mauer has hit safely in 18 of 22 career games at Tampa Bay. … The Rays had gone nine games without committing an error until Archer’s miscue in the sixth.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Minnesota   Tampa Bay
Kyle Gibson Player Chris Archer
Loss W/L Win
6.0 IP 6.0
3 Strikeouts 2
4 Hits 3
6.00 ERA 0.00
Hitting
Minnesota   Tampa Bay
Joe Mauer Player Jose Lobaton
2 Hits 2
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
3 TB 2
.500 Avg .667
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Minnesota 5 0 6 .167 12 7 1 0 0 0
Tampa Bay 5 0 6 .179 11 5 4 4 0 1