Game of the Day | Tampa Bay halfway home

PITTSBURGH — What a first half the Tampa Bay Rays have enjoyed as the majors' surprise team. Their goal now? To make the second half just as stunningly good.

Backup catcher Shawn Riggans homered among his three hits and drove in two runs and the first-place Rays completed a remarkable first-half turnaround, beating Pittsburgh 4-3 on Sunday behind Andy Sonnanstine's seven effective innings.

Tampa Bay regained first place in the American League East for the first time since June 3 when the Boston Red Sox lost at Houston, 3-2. The Red Sox and Rays open a three-game series at Tropicana Field tonight.

The Rays (49-32) went 5-1 on a trip to Florida and Pittsburgh and finished 12-6 in interleague play.

And this is a team that has never had a winning season or won more than 70 games since joining the AL as an expansion team in 1998.

"We went 5-1 on the trip and I felt we let one slip away," said closer Troy Percival, who pitched the ninth inning against Pittsburgh for his 18th save in 20 opportunities. "You get to that point, you've got a team that's doing something special."

The Rays had the worst record in the majors last year. Only one other team — the 1903 New York Giants (.643, 45-25) — had a better winning percentage at midseason after finishing the previous season with the worst overall record in the majors.

"This is great, but it's only the first half," said Riggans, who in 73 at-bats has 15 runs batted in. "Nobody remembers the first half, everybody remembers the second half and the last day of the season. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. Interleague play is done now."

All the qualities that led to Tampa Bay's strong first half were on display against the Pirates: effective starting pitching, power from a fast-improving offense and timely hitting.

"I'm not going to sit here and say I expected us to be at this particular place in the standings," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It's been an anonymous first half.

"There's no one guy having a killer season, which makes it more appealing to me that we're at this juncture, knowing somebody's going to turn into a beast in the second half."

Sonnanstine (9-3) limited Pittsburgh to two runs, one earned, and is 6-0 after a Rays loss. Tampa Bay was a 4-3, 13-inning loser on Jason Bay's game-ending home run Saturday night.