Tampa Bay beats Angels, 4-3, despite Weaver’s strong start

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Angels right-hander Jered Weaver took advantage of the twilight conditions of a 4 p.m. start to set a career high with 12 strikeouts, but the Tampa Bay Rays scored three unearned runs for a 4-3 victory in Angel Stadium on Wednesday.

It marked the first time since May 14-16, 1999, that the Rays, who won two of the three games in Anaheim, won a series in Angel Stadium. The Angels fell to 15-21, their worst 36-game start since they went 14-22 in 1990.

Weaver went seven innings and allowed four runs--one earned--and six hits, and of his 120 pitches, 80 were strikes. The way the first inning went, it seemed doubtful he would make it to the fifth.

Weaver needed 34 pitches to complete the first, the Rays taking advantage of third baseman Kevin Frandsen’s error and catcher Ryan Budde’s passed ball to score two unearned runs.

Carl Crawford singled, Ben Zobrist hit a run-scoring double, and Carlos Pena walked during the rally, but Weaver struck out Pat Burrell with runners on second and third to end the inning.

Torii Hunter’s RBI single in the third pulled the Angels within 2-1, but the Rays extended the lead to 3-1 in the fifth when Jason Bartlett walked, took third on Crawford’s hit-and-run single and scored on another Budde past ball.

Evan Longoria doubled to open the sixth and scored on B.J. Upton’s one-out single for a 4-1 Tampa Bay lead, but the Angels scored single runs in the sixth (Howie Kendrick RBI double) and seventh (Bobby Abreu sacrifice fly) to make it 4-3. Budde singled to open the seventh and took third on Erick Aybar’s double before Abreu’s fly to deep center.

Left-hander David Price went 6 1/3 innings for the Rays, allowing three runs--two earned--seven hits and striking out six for Tampa Bay.

--Mike DiGiovanna