Longoria and Crawford homer, Rays beat Twins 5-3 to stop 5-game slide

Longoria homers, drives in 3 to help Rays end skid

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford homered, helping the Tampa Bay Rays end a season-high, five-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night.

James Shields (4-4) allowed two runs and seven hits in seven-plus innings to get his first win since May 3. The right-hander gave up a solo homer to Michael Cuddyer in the sixth and a second run that scored on Justin Morneau’s RBI double off reliever J.P Howell in the eighth.

Longoria boosted his major league-leading RBI total to 54 with his three-run homer off Scott Baker (2-6), snapping a 1-1 tie in the sixth. Crawford’s second homer of the season gave the Rays a 1-0 lead in the third.

Joe Mauer had a single, double and triple to boost his batting average to .417 for the Twins. His triple leading off the eighth finished Shields, and Morneau followed with his double to trim Tampa Bay’s lead to 4-2.

Morneau scored from second base on Longoria’s throwing error on Cuddyer’s grounder to third, however Minnesota stranded the potential tying run at second when Howell struck out Joe Crede and Brendan Harris to end the eighth.

Willy Aybar gave Tampa Bay some more breathing room with an RBI double that made it 5-3. Dan Wheeler and Randy Choate pitched the ninth, with Choate getting his first major league save by striking out Mauer with one runner on base.

Shields walked one and struck out five. He has suffered from a lack of run support this season, with Tampa Bay winning just two of the last eight games in which he’s pitched, even though the right-hander has not pitched that poorly.

Entering Friday night, the Rays had scored 4.03 runs per nine innings for Shields. That was fifth-lowest in the AL.

The Twins wasted opportunities early, going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position through five innings. Cuddyer’s ninth homer wiped out a 1-0 deficit in the sixth, however it didn’t take Tampa Bay long to regain the lead.

B.J. Upton and Crawford singled before Longoria lined his 13th homer over the center field wall to make it 4-1. Baker didn’t make it through the inning, leaving after Ben Zobrist doubled with two outs.

The Minnesota starter allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings.