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| Tampa Bay Rays' Carlos Pena grounds out to drive in a run in the first inning of Game 2 of the baseball World Series in St. Petersburg, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008. |
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- Run-scoring groundouts by Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria put Tampa Bay ahead in the first, and the Rays led the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 after three innings Thursday night as they tried to even the World Series at a game apiece.
B.J. Upton padded the lead with an RBI single in the second off Phillies starter Brett Myers. But right fielder Jayson Werth threw out Rocco Baldelli at the plate on the play, with catcher Carlos Ruiz tagging him as the runner's hip crashed into mask.
Philadelphia went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position in the first three innings, dropping to an astounding 0-for-19 in the Series.
A day after the Phillies took a 2-0 first-inning lead and held on for a 3-2 win, the Rays got off quickly. Myers walked Akinori Iwamura leading off, and Upton followed with a single that Werth misplayed for an error, putting runners on second and third with no outs.
Pena grounded to an overshifted Jimmy Rollins on the right side as Iwamura scored, and Longoria followed with a grounder to Rollins at his normal shortstop spot.
Dioner Navarro singled with one out in the second, Baldelli walked on a 3-2 checked swing in which he appeared to go around and Jason Barlett's infield single on a slow roller loaded the bases. Iwamura popped out, but Upton singled to right for his 16th RBI of the postseason, three shy of the record shared by Cleveland's Sandy Alomar Jr. (1997), Anaheim's Scott Spiezio (2002) and Boston's David Ortiz (2004).
Rays starter James Shields worked out of trouble in the second, when Ryan Howard doubled leading off and Pat Burrell walked. After Shane Victorino fouled out on the first pitch, Greg Dobbs took a called third strike and Pedro Feliz flied to center.
Ruiz doubled starting the third, but Rollins grounded out, Werth struck out and Chase Utley grounded out.
Following a battle of left-handers in the opener, there were two righties starting, and both teams made lineup changes.
Cliff Floyd started at designated hitter for the Rays in place of Willy Aybar, and Baldelli started in right instead of Ben Zobrist.
Philadelphia used Dobbs as its DH instead of Chris Coste.
The Series switches to Philadelphia for Game 3, which is scheduled for Saturday night. Rain is in the forecast. When the Phillies were last in the Series, in 1993, the third game began after a rain delay of 1 hour, 12 minutes.
