The Ray hit four home runs Sunday, including an unexpected long drive by shortstop Jason Bartlett, a three-run blast by Ben Zobrist and a major-league leading fifth by Evan Longoria.
They got a dominating pitching performance from starter James Shields, who put his road woes behind him, or at least didn't bring them to Baltimore. And they made their usual handful of dazzling defensive plays.
But what manager Joe Maddon was most pleased with was Carl Crawford's two-out bases-loaded triple in the second inning, an actual, honest-to-goodness clutch hit.
"We need more of that," Maddon said. "We need better at-bats with runners in scoring position -- line drives and ground balls, not fly balls. We're going to hit home runs. We have to do a better job in situational hitting."
And he wants all the players to feel that way.
"I don't know why we haven't been doing that right now," Crawford said. "We definitely want to get those hits, they're important."
RAYS 11, ORIOLES 3: RHP James Shields gave the Rays the kind of dominating start they expect from him, throwing seven shutout innings and being in control the whole time. The Rays staked him to a 4-0 lead early and built it to 11-0, primarily on the strength of four more homers, including the major-league leading fifth by Evan Longoria, before a sloppy ninth inning by Grant Balfour.
