"If you walk in here on a daily basis, you wouldn't know if we had won or lost the day before. That's the way I like it," manager Joe Maddon said after Ben Zobrist's pinch-hit grand slam stopped a skid in which the Rays struggled at the plate in key situations.
"Our guys believe. We know that we can do this. We know that we're going to hit better as the season is in progress," Maddon added. "We know the bullpen's going to be all right, we know the starting pitching is good."
Carlos Pena homered for the fifth time in six days for the Rays, who were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position during a 3-2 loss to the White Sox on Thursday night. That loss gave them their first three-game losing streak at Tropicana Field in a year.
"Obviously it's just the beginning of the season. But we have been struggling the last few games with the bats," Zobrist said. "It was nice to come awake a little bit today."
Right-hander James Shields (2-1) recovered after giving up sixth-inning home runs to Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye to win for the second time since an opening day loss. He allowed five runs and seven hits, struck out four and walked two in 7 1-3 innings.
Zobrist hit his slam off Matt Thornton (0-1) after the Rays loaded the bases with two outs against White Sox starter Bartolo Colon. The shot into the left-field stands wiped out a 5-2 lead that Chicago took when Quentin hit a solo homer and Dye followed with a two-run shot.
"He knows I have to come after him and throw strikes. I can't afford to walk guys there," Thornton said. "The situation right there, they're fun to come into. But they're the toughest ones you're going to face."
Pena led off the second inning with his sixth homer. The slugger has hit safely in 10 straight games since going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts at Boston on opening day, and he has five homers and 11 RBIs in his past six games.
Brian Shouse and Dan Wheeler finished a scoreless eighth for Tampa Bay. Closer Troy Percival worked through a ninth-inning jam for his second save.
"I made a few pitches early in the game that could have easily cost us. Guys did a great job of coming right back and changing the momentum," Shields said. "Hats off to the offense for doing that."
The White Sox took a 2-1 lead in the third, scoring on Chris Getz's RBI double and Josh Fields' grounder to shortstop. They threatened again in the fifth, but stranded two runners in scoring position when Fields hit a hard liner to Rays third baseman Evan Longoria.
Longoria rejoined the Rays after missing two games because of a death in the family, arriving in town around 5 a.m. on a redeye flight from California. The 2008 AL Rookie of the Year went 1-for-4 with a sixth-inning double that extended his hitting streak to nine games.
