ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Carlos Pena was involved in two key plays, and both went against him.
Tim Hudson scattered four hits over 7 2-3 innings, David Ross homered and the Atlanta Braves beat the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 on Sunday.
Jonny Venters, who replaced Hudson after B.J. Upton had an infield single with two outs in the eighth, loaded the bases by hitting both Matt Joyce and Pena. The left-hander caught a break when Pena was called out between first and second when he was hit by Luke Scott's grounder.
``It caught me in mid-stride,'' Pena said. ``It was just a helpless feeling because I couldn't go anywhere. I think I was in the air when the ball was hit, and it was a rocket. It was just bad luck. If I played it less aggressively, the wrong way, maybe I'm able to stop, back off and we score two runs. So I think there we got penalized for running the bases right.''
Scott was credited with a single on the play.
``It has been awkward, strange, weird, whatever you want to call it, but then again we had a chance to win the game again today,'' Rays manager Joe Maddon said. ``In spite of all the adversity we do have, we were in that game and we had a chance to win that game. We had the right guys up. We went about our business properly. Hudson just pitched that well.''
The Rays loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth when Ben Zobrist was hit by a pitch, Upton singled and Joyce walked, but failed to score when Pena flew out to deep center.
``That was the ballgame for me,'' Hudson said. ``I didn't make a great pitch to him, it wasn't the best of curveballs, and he just missed it.''
Pena is 0 for 13 over the last four games, and is hitting just .121 this month.
Hudson (3-1), who is 8-1 overall against the Rays, retired nine in a row before Zobrist opened the fourth with a line single to right. The right-hander struck out three, walked two and got 14 groundball outs.
Ross put the Braves up 1-0 on an opposite-field, solo-homer to right in the third. Jason Heyward made it 2-0 on a two-out, RBI single during the sixth.
Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth for his 13th save to complete a five-hitter.
David Price (6-3) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings for Tampa Bay.
``He's been good all year, and his whole career,'' Hudson said. ``You knew runs were going to be tough to come by. That two-run lead felt like it was an eight-run lead because you didn't expect to get a whole lot today.''
After Sean Rodriguez had a one-out bloop double down the right-field line in the seventh, Hudson got out of the jam by getting consecutive grounders from Will Rhymes and Elliot Johnson.
Rodriguez, playing third, took a hit away from Ross leading off the fifth when he dove into foul territory to field a grounder and then throw the Atlanta catcher out at first.
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones was out of the lineup for the second consecutive game because of a bruised left calf and is day to day. He was hit by Upton's hard one-hop liner in Friday night's game.
``He's walking around better,'' Gonzalez said. ``Hopefully (he'll play Monday) or maybe even Tuesday.''
NOTES: There was a video tribute after the first inning for Jones, who is retiring after this season. This was the Florida native's final regular-season visit to Tropicana Field. Jones, who received a standing ovation during the video, left the dugout and tipped his hat to the fans. Jones plans to use a protective shin guard the rest of the season. ... Rays INF Jeff Keppinger has an injured right foot after getting hit by a foul ball in the dugout on Saturday. ... Tampa Bay C Jose Molina left after six innings as a precaution after taking a ball off the mask. ``He did get dinged a little bit there,'' Maddon said. ``He came out and he was not 100 percent right. I was not comfortable sending him back out there.''
