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Rays' offense comes alive in win over Cardinals

St. Petersburg, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Desmond Jennings drove in two runs as the  Tampa Bay Rays snapped their franchise-worst scoreless innings streak and defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, from Tropicana Field on Wednesday.

Jennings  and  Ben Zobrist each  had two hits apiece  for the Rays, who pushed across four runs in the fourth after not scoring in 31 straight innings.

"We  finally  got some hits  when we  needed it. We  had some really great at-bats," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Starter  Erik Bedard  was  reached for  three  runs on  eight  hits with  four strikeouts  in four innings, but Juan Carlos Oviedo (2-2) allowed just one hit in 1 1/3 scoreless frames and struck out two to earn the win.

Yadier Molina supplied two hits and two RBI and Jon Jay had two hits and a run scored  for  the Cardinals,  who had their  three-game winning streak snapped. Michael Wacha (4-5) was tagged with the loss after giving up four runs on four hits and four walks in five innings.

"I wasn't very happy with my performance today," Wacha said.

The  Rays ended their  scoreless streak and took the lead in the fourth. James Loney's  leadoff single  down the left-field line was Tampa Bay's first hit of the  game. Zobrist  followed him up with  a single and two batters later, Matt Joyce brought them both home with a line drive base hit into center.

Yunel Escobar and Ryan Hanigan both walked to load the bases. Jennings stroked a line drive single into left, scoring Joyce and Escobar for a 4-3 lead.

With  the  bases loaded  in the fifth  for St. Louis,  Peter Bourjos' liner to right  was  snagged by Kevin Kiermaier,  who extended his glove with a leaping grab to keep the Rays ahead.

Tampa  Bay  tacked two runs on  in the seventh. Jennings singled and Kiermaier walked  off  Carlos Martinez  before Longoria's sharp  single to right brought around  Jennings and  placed men  on the  corners with  one out.  Randy Choate replaced Martinez and immediately gave up a sacrifice fly to Loney that scored
Kiermaier.

The Cardinals opened the scoring in the third. Matt Carpenter walked and Allen Craig doubled down the left-field line to put men at second and third with two outs.  Molina's  base hit into right  allowed Carpenter to score and Craig got around the tag of the catcher Hanigan to make it a 2-0 game.

In  the  fourth, Carpenter's RBI  single to right with  men on first and third gave the Cardinals a 3-0 advantage.

                                   Game Notes

The Rays snapped a six-game interleague skid ... Wacha gave up more than three runs  for  the first time  this season ... Jay  extended his hitting streak to seven  games ... Tampa Bay went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position while St. Louis went 2-for-7.

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