Tampa Bay beats Indians, again

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Joe Maddon is hopeful the Rays are back to playing championship-caliber baseball.

B.J. Upton homered for the second consecutive day, Matt Garza pitched six effective innings and Tampa Bay beat the Cleveland Indians 4-2 on Saturday.

“I expect us to get back to the playoffs and I expect that we’ll stop making the little mistakes that we didn’t make in the past,” The Rays manager said.

The defending AL champions Rays (18-20) have won 10 of 16.

Hours after he completed the Rays’ rally from seven runs down with a game-ending drive Friday night for an 8-7 victory over Cleveland, Upton put the Rays ahead 1-0 with his second home run of the season off Carl Pavano in the fourth.

“B.J.’s homer was big,” Maddon said.

Upton, who started the season on the disabled list after left shoulder surgery, is hitting .192. However, he has worked recently on the lower half of his batting stance and has seven hits in his last 19 at-bats.

For more details, read Sunday's Vindicator or visit Vindy.com.