rounding third and he was going to go all the way home. But Chase

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Drew Pomeranz may have found his niche as a starting pitcher. Pomeranz won his third consecutive start since moving from the bullpen into the rotation, Coco Crisp drove in two runs before departing with an injury, and the surging Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0 on Tuesday night. Pomeranz (4-1) allowed three hits, two walks and had three strikeouts over five innings. He has not given up a run in his three starts, all of which lasted five innings. "My three starts have been a great team effort," Pomeranz said. "We scored a lot of runs and the bullpen shut them down." Sean Doolittle, the third Oakland reliever, pitched the ninth for his third save and complete a four-hitter. After the game, Oakland manager Bob Melvin said there is a good chance Doolittle will take over the closers role. "Its pretty cool," Doolittle said. Doolittle did see his streak of 30 straight appearances without allowing a walk end when Ryan Hanigan drew one with two outs in the ninth. Former Baltimore closer Jim Johnson, acquired by Oakland from the Orioles in December, has allowed seven runs in 4 1-3 innings over his past six appearances. Crisp hit a two-run double and John Jaso had an RBI single off Jake Odorizzi (2-4) as Oakland took a 3-0 lead in the second. The AL West-leading Athletics have won 10 of 11, outscoring their opponents 74-18 over the stretch. "You dont do that by swinging at bad pitches," Odorizzi said. Crisp was replaced defensively by Craig Gentry in the bottom of the sixth because of neck soreness. He had started four straight games after missing seven with a neck strain. Melvin expects Crisp to sit out Wednesday nights game. Odorizzi gave up three runs, four hits, five walks and struck out eight in 4 2-3 innings. The Rays (19-27) are eight games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2007 season (66-96), which was their final season as the Devil Rays. "Never say it cant get any worse because whenever you utter those words, youre going to find it out," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "Im looking more for the turning point. You never know how close you are to turning negative momentum to positive." Pomeranz worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the third by getting a double play grounder from Desmond Jennings on a 3-2 pitch. Jennings also hit into an inning-ending double play with two on in the eighth. "Those double pays are huge," Pomeranz said. Maddon challenged the very close out call on Jennings at first base in the third, which the umpires ruled would stand after a review that took 1 minute, 23 seconds. NOTES: Oakland SS Jed Lowrie, who left Sundays game at Cleveland in the second because of a strained neck, was out of the starting lineup. ... Rays RHP Alex Cobb (strained left oblique) will rejoin the rotation Thursday. ... Athletics 2B Eric Sogard, removed Sunday in the eighth after fouling a ball off his knee, played. ... Hanigan (sore right hamstring) was a defensive replacement in the ninth. ... Oakland RHP Ryan Cook (strained right forearm) has been cleared to resume playing catch. ... Athletics LHP Eric OFlaherty (elbow ligament replacement surgery) threw 30 pitches in batting practice and will next throw in a simulated game. ... Oakland C Derek Norris walked three times, including one on a 14-pitch at-bat in the fourth. ... Oakland LHP Tommy Milone (1-3) and Tampa Bay LHP Erik Bedard (2-1) are Wednesday nights scheduled starters. Cheap Chinese Basketball Shoes . Berdych and Stepanek played all five matches when the Czechs beat Spain 3-2 in the final last November in Prague to win the countrys first title as an independent nation. Cheap Basketball Shoes Free Shipping . The Sioux Falls Canaries scored two in the seventh and three more in the eighth to come back from a 3-0 deficit and defeat the Winnipeg Goldeyes 5-3 in front of 6,769 at Shaw Park on Sunday afternoon. http://www.wholesalebasketballshoes.com/ . The premature end left 26 players still to finish the round in the Asian Tour event. Siddikur, who shot a bogey-free first round to share the lead with five others, eagled the par-5 first hole before bogeying twice and rebounding with six birdies. Cheap Basketball Shoes . Brooks replaces right-hander Yordano Ventura, who left his last outing with a sore elbow. Ventura is expected to miss one start. Brooks has made one relief appearance for the Royals this season, allowing six runs in two innings in a May 3 loss to Detroit. Cheap Basketball Shoes Authentic . You can watch the game live on TSN2 and TSN Mobile TV at 9pm et/6pm pt. Jonathan Huberdeau and Quinton Howden are expected to make their debuts for Team Canada.LOS ANGELES -- Cliff Lee gave the Dodgers a good lesson in what has made him a dominant pitcher: masterful control. Lee scattered four hits over eight innings, struck out 10 and retired 21 of his last 22 batters to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 7-0 victory. The 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner has 38 strikeouts and two walks through his first five starts, after leading the majors in strikeout to-walk ratio and fewest walks per nine innings during each of the previous two seasons. "Thats definitely something I take pride in," Lee said. "I really focus a lot on working ahead in the count and trying to make them earn their way on base. Ive made a conscious effort over the past few years to make that one of my priorities and its going to continue to be that way." It was the fifth time Lee has had at least 10 Ks against the Dodgers and, this time, a number of their hitters were griping about umpire Hunter Wendelstedts strike zone. "Its a good thing for me when theyre complaining about called strikes. I dont see how that can be a bad thing for me," Lee said. "I know they did complain a lot on a lot of called, and thats fine with me." Carlos Ruiz hit a two-run homer and a two-run double and Ryan Howard also went deep in the opener of a four-game series against the defending NL West champions. Lee (3-2) had at least one strikeout in every inning he pitched and did not walk a batter, giving way to Jeff Manship after 113 pitches. Left-hander Paul Maholm (0-2) gave up five runs and eight hits over five innings and committed a throwing error in the fifth that gave the Phillies an unearned run. "It was frustrating just going through a long first inning, battling, not having your stuff, and doing everything possible to get deep into the game," Maholm said. "The bullpen needed a rest and unfortunately I didnt give it to them." Maholm used 29 of his 107 pitches to get out of the first after a leadoff walk to Tony Gwynn Jr. Jimmy Rollins followed with a bloop single to right-centre. Matt Kemp slowed up on the catchable ball when he saw right fielder Yasiel Puig coming hard. Both runnerrs scored on Ruizs double into the right field corner.dddddddddddd "That was huge. An early lead is definitely good for the pitcher," Lee said. Puig tried to get one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning, but ran into an out trying to score from second on an infield hit up the middle by Adrian Gonzalez that extended his hitting streak to 16 games. Second baseman Chase Utley fielded the ball behind the bag and looked straight at Puig, who ended up in a rundown. Catcher Ruiz took the throw and chased Puig back to third before making a lunging tag for the third out with Kemp on deck. "Thats definitely advanced. That just shows that hes one step ahead of the game and a prime example of what kind of player he is," Lee said. "Maybe he could have gotten the guy at first, but he had a pretty good idea of how Puig was going to be running the bases -- and he was dead-on. He was aggressively rounding third and he was going to go all the way home. But Chase anticipated that and got him out." The Dodgers got only one more hit over the next 6 2-3 innings -- a leadoff single in the second by Kemp, who entered 1 for 15 against Lee with nine strikeouts. Lee retired the next 20 batters before Tim Federowicz singled with two out in the eighth. The Phillies made it 5-0 with a three-run fifth. Howard hit his fifth of the season one pitch after a two-out walk to Ruiz. John Mayberry Jr. singled and scored when Maholm threw the ball over Gonzalezs head at first base after fielding a tapper to the right of the mound by Freddy Galvis. NOTES: The Dodgers dedicated their training room and named it in honour of Dr. Frank Jobe, the teams longtime physician who died March 6 at age 88. On hand for the pregame ceremony was Tommy John, whose career was extended 14 years by Jobe with the elbow ligament-replacement surgery he developed and has become commonplace in baseball. ... Clayton Kershaw came out of Sundays simulated game without incident and will throw a bullpen session Tuesday as a prelude to a possible minor league rehab start later in the week. ... The Dodgers have committed 21 errors through their first 20 games. ' ' '