Orioles' big inning hard to forget

It was just one of those days is a common refrain concerning Baltimore's 12-run sixth Thursday.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 13, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- A good night's rest might have soothed the sting of the whole ordeal.

But even that was not possible.

The Rays didn't arrive home until after 3 a.m. Friday after Thursday's sixth inning cost them a victory against the Orioles and the franchise's best start. "I think I thought about it right when I woke up," shortstop Chris Gomez said. "Unfortunately."

Less than 24 hours after the Orioles erased a 6-3 Rays lead by scoring 12 runs off three pitchers, disbelief still was evident.

"It's laugh or go crazy," Rays pitching coach Jackie Brown said. "It was ugly. There's no other way to say it. It was ugly. I'd never seen that many runs scored in one inning.

"I imagine there's other people that have, but I can't sit and remember a game that I ever saw that many runs scored."

The easiest thing would be to blame the bullpen for what transpired during the 37-minute inning.

But Travis Phelps, Jesus Colome and Steve Kent weren't the only culprits as the Orioles fell one short of the major-league record for runs in a sixth inning.

Starter Joe Kennedy struggled to get through five innings, allowing the Orioles to cut the Rays' lead to three in the fifth inning.

Gomez and third baseman Bobby Smith made throwing errors in the sixth. First baseman Steve Cox failed to catch a one-hop throw from Gomez. Catcher Toby Hall mishandled a few pitches.

"Those things do happen," manager Hal McRae said. "But I wouldn't say it's better to get it out of the way because it meant that we lost the ballgame."

McRae's plan was to throw Phelps, who hadn't pitched in five days, for one inning before bringing in Colome for two and closer Esteban Yan for the ninth.

But Phelps allowed two homers -- on a 3-and-2 pitch to Geronimo Gil and an 0-and-2 pitch to No.9 hitter Mike Bordick -- and eight of the nine batters Colome faced scored.

"I made bad pitches and was up in the zone," Phelps said. "It's going to happen throughout the year. You're going to have a bad outing here and there.

"If you realize that and come back the next night strong again, it's no big deal as long as you don't let it get you down and keep you down."

The bullpen had allowed four runs in its previous 20 innings. Brown and McRae said the best thing for Phelps and Colome will be to get back on the mound and pitch.

"Those things are going to happen to you," Brown said. "You're supposed to learn from them. It should make you a better player.

"If they live to be old enough, they probably won't repeat what just happened. But they'll have something similar to it as long as you keep going on the mound. Every pitcher that's ever walked out there has one of those days in their lifetimes."

Thursday was a first for many, however.

"Half the battle in baseball is forgetting all the negatives," Gomez said. "There's a lot of them. There's no chance to relax. You've just got to try and focus on the positives."