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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Baltimore 1, Tampa Bay 0
When: 7:10 PM ET, Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Where: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Temperature: Indoors
Umpires: Home - Ed Hickox, 1B - Ted Barrett, 2B - Mark Carlson, 3B - Angel Hernandez
Attendance: 13460

Orioles 1, Rays 0: Red-hot Chris Davis homered for the sixth consecutive game to back 6 1/3 scoreless innings from Miguel Gonzalez as visiting Baltimore kept its division title hopes alive.

Gonzalez (9-4) won his third straight start, allowing two hits and striking out seven to outduel James Shields and keep the Orioles one game behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees with one to play.

Davis supplied the game's only run with a towering fourth-inning blast to center off Shields - his seventh homer during the six-game streak - and Baltimore remained tied for the wild card lead with Oakland and Texas.

Brian Matusz and Darren O'Day bridged the gap to closer Jim Johnson, who worked around a one-out walk in the ninth for his major league-leading 51st save as the Orioles improved to 74-0 this season when leading after seven innings.

Shields (15-10) absorbed the loss despite pitching a gem, striking out a career-high and franchise-record 15 batters and allowing only two hits in his third complete game of the season. He fanned seven of the last nine batters he faced.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Davis' six-game home run streak tied the club record held by Reggie Jackson and Ken Williams and moved him past Adam Jones for the team lead with 33. ... Shields has fanned 25 Orioles over 15 innings in his last two starts against Baltimore. ... Gonzalez, who has a string of 13 1/3 scoreless innings at Tropicana Field, became the second Orioles rookie to beat all four AL East opponents since division play began in 1969.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Baltimore   Tampa Bay
Miguel Gonzalez Player James Shields
Win W/L Loss
6.1 IP 9.0
7 Strikeouts 15
2 Hits 2
0.00 ERA 1.00
Hitting
Baltimore   Tampa Bay
Chris DavisPlayer Chris Gimenez
1 Hits 1
1 RBI 0
1 HR 0
4 TB 1
.333 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Baltimore 2 1 5 .069 1 15 1 0 0 0
Tampa Bay 2 0 2 .069 12 9 0 3 0 0