Long game ends with short bunt, Rays loss

O'S 6, RAYS 5 (14): Bobby Smith's home run in the 13th inning ties it, but Baltimore wins it on a squeeze by backup catcher Brook Fordyce.

[Times photo: Michael Rondou] Rays manager Hal McRae argues with the umpires about a balk called against Esteban Yan. Jerry Hairston moved to third and later scored to give Baltimore a 5-4 lead in the 13th.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published April 20, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- It was bad enough the way the Rays lost Friday's marathon game, a squeeze bunt by a backup catcher in the 14th inning that gave Baltimore a 6-5 win.

But they were just as troubled by two umpire's calls that cost them a run in the 13th and, essentially, cost them a chance to win the game in the eighth. "A tough game to lose," manager Hal McRae said. "We played excellent baseball. (Tanyon) Sturtze pitched well. We just didn't get any breaks. We played good enough to win. Put it that way."

The rally that ended the 4-hour, 32-minute game started quickly against Jesus Colome, who has allowed 12 hits and 11 earned runs in his past 41/3 innings.

Tony Batista and Marty Cordova opened with singles, and Mike Bordick moved them up a base with a sacrifice bunt.

Brook Fordyce then pushed a squeeze bunt to the right of the mound, scoring Batista without a play at the plate before what little remained of the Tropicana Field crowd of 11,124.

The Rays, who had rallied twice to take the lead and a third time to tie, tried one more time in the 14th. With Greg Vaughn aboard after a leadoff walk, Ben Grieve drove a fly ball that was caught against the leftfield wall.

"We kept fighting, and they kept fighting," Vaughn said. "I guess it wasn't meant to be."

The Rays had two chances to secure the victory, or at least preserve a 4-2 lead, in the eighth, but couldn't get the final out.

One was their fault, an error by Brent Abernathy on a throw to second base. The other was left up to first-base umpire Andy Fletcher, who ruled first baseman Bobby Smith didn't make what appeared to be a sliding catch of a foul ball in front of the Rays dugout.

Toby Hall had Melvin Mora thrown out at second on the back end of a double steal to end the inning, but Abernathy dropped the throw.

"If I catch the ball at second base, it's the third out and we're out of the inning and the game never gets tied," Abernathy said. "I take full responsibility for my mistakes. It's a play we've talked about. We ran it to perfection, and I didn't catch the ball.

"I over-ran the base a little, and I kind of took my eye off the ball trying to find Mora. And I missed the ball. It cost us the game. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it."

But there were.

With Jeff Conine still batting, Smith appeared to make a spectacular catch as he slid into the protective fence in front of the dugout.

"I thought I caught it," Smith said. "I didn't think it hit the net. He said it hit my glove, then it hit the net, then I caught it again. That was a big play. If I catch that, it's three outs."

Television replays were inconclusive, but Fletcher said he had no doubt.

"The ball goes in his glove, comes out of his glove, then he traps it against the netting and pulls it back," Fletcher said. "No catch."

Four pitches later, Conine lashed a ball to left beyond the reach of a diving Jason Tyner, scoring two runs to tie the score at 4.

In the 13th, the Rays gave up what could have been the winning run after a controversial balk, though they then tied the score when Smith led off the bottom of the inning with his first homer of the season.

Jerry Hairston started Baltimore's rally with a leadoff double that went just over Tyner's glove. Esteban Yan did a good job of preventing Mora from bunting but then was called for a balk on an attempted fake pickoff that looked something like a pivot with a half jump.

McRae protested, arguing Yan had stepped off the rubber first and asking home-plate umpire Marty Foster to solicit help from his crew mates.

"I said, 'Get the call right. That's the most important thing,"' McRae said. "He said, 'I saw it, and it's my call.' The play was to second base. I don't know if it was his call."

Foster said it was clear to him.

"He started his move and when he went to step off he didn't really clear the rubber, the back part of the rubber," Foster said. "And he was pushing off."

Yan struck out Mora but allowed a sacrifice fly to Chris Singleton, then appeared to lose his cool, throwing a 94 mph fastball a foot behind Conine.

Smith made sure the game didn't end that way. Having already struck out twice to increase his league-leading total to 22, Smith lined Jorge Julio's first pitch of the home 13th into the leftfield seats to tie the score at 5.

Despite the disappointment and frustration, McRae said it was not a lost night. Randy Winn had a career-high tying four hits. Struggling reliever Victor Zambrano pitched three solid innings, allowing one hit. And Sturtze had his best outing of the season, allowing six hits and one walk in 72/3 innings.

Sturtze gave up a tying homer to lead off the seventh, but was more annoyed at giving up the two-run double to Conine in the troubling eighth on his 115th and final pitch.

"I thought I threw pretty well," Sturtze said. "I needed to make one more pitch, and I didn't make it. I thought I had the W going into the eighth, but I didn't do my job."

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