St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Carl Crawford's two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning lifted the Tampa Bay Rays to a 4-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the season opener for both teams at Tropicana Field.
Evan Longoria homered and Jason Bartlett posted two hits with an RBI for the Rays, who opened their 2010 campaign in dramatic fashion. Ben Zobrist and Dioneer Navarro both added two hits in the win.
James Shields started on the hill for Tampa Bay and pitched into the seventh inning, allowing three runs on nine hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Rafael Soriano (1-0) picked up the win after he pitched a scoreless ninth.
Adam Jones, Luke Scott and Matt Wieters all homered for the Orioles.
The Rays finished last season third in the AL East with an 84-78 record while Baltimore occupied the last position in the division with a 64-98 record.
Kevin Millwood pitched five-plus innings for the visitors and surrendered two runs on nine hits with five strikeouts.
In the bottom of the ninth, with Orioles reliever Mike Gonzalez (0-1) on the mound, Sean Rodriguez reached with a one-out single and moved to third on Kelly Shoppach's double. After Bartlett was intentionally walked to load the bases, Crawford's base hit toward the line in right field scored two as the Rays celebrated around home plate.
After a solo homer by Jones in the top of the third, the O's moved ahead by two when Scott led off the fourth frame with a home run to right field.
Tampa cut its deficit in half in the home fifth. Pat Burrell stroked a double leading off and came around to score on a two-out single by Bartlett.
Another leadoff home run, this one in the sixth off the bat of Wieters, gave Baltimore a 3-1 advantage.
Longoria followed suit with a leadoff homer of his own in the bottom of the stanza.
Navarro singled to lead off the home portion of the seventh inning with a base hit, but Bartlett fanned before reliever Will Ohman entered from the Baltimore bullpen and forced Crawford to line out and Ben Zobrist to ground out.
The Orioles are now 35-22 all-time on Opening Day, while the Rays improved to 7-6...This marked the fourth time that these two teams have opened the season against each other, and the third in the last five years...This was Shields' third consecutive Opening Day start, while Millwood made the start on the season's first game for the seventh time in his career for various clubs...The O's stranded 10 baserunners, while the Rays left nine men on base...Gonzalez was also charged with a blown save...Attendance was 36,973.