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Rays Put Baseball's Top Record On The Line In Finale With Angels

(Sports Network) - Thanks to wins in the first two games of this series the Tampa Bay Rays now have the best record in all of baseball. Tonight, they will try to sweep the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for the second time this season in a three-game set at Tropicana Field.

Tampa also broke the brooms out on the AL West-leading Halos from May 9-11.

Last night with Tropical Storm Fay bearing down, Willie Aybar's two-run single in a decisive eighth inning proved to be the difference and James Shields tossed eight effective innings to lead Tampa Bay to a 4-2 win.

The red-hot Rays picked up their ninth win in 11 tries and remained 4 1/2 games ahead of Boston in the AL East. Their 22-9 mark since the All-Star break and 47-17 ledger at home are also tops in the league.

Shields (11-7) yielded just two runs on nine hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in earning the win. B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena had an RBI apiece while Jason Bartlett doubled and scored twice for the Rays.

Vladimir Guerrero homered and doubled, scoring twice, while Garret Anderson extended his hitting streak to 22 games with an RBI double for LA, which has dropped five of its last six contests, but still leads the AL West by 15 1/2 games.

The Angels had entered this matchup with the best record in the league.

Hoping to complete the sweep for the Rays tonight will be right-hander Matt Garza, who is coming off one of the best efforts of his career. Garza tossed a two-hit shutout on Friday to beat Texas, as he improved to 10-7 on the year, while lowering his earned run average to 3.63. He also struck out nine and walked a pair in the win.

Garza lost his only other start to the Angels.

Los Angeles will counter with righty Jered Weaver, who is 10-9 with a 4.47 ERA. Weaver did not get a decision on Friday in Cleveland, as the Indians managed two runs and five hits off of him in 5 1/3 innings of his team's 3-2 loss.

Weaver gave up one run in eight innings to beat the Rays back on June 10 and is 2-0 lifetime against them with a 1.93 ERA in two starts.

Tampa Bay has won six of its eight games with the Angels this season and is the only team in the league with a winning record against them.

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