Rupe, Rays are just about perfect

RAYS 9, TWINS 1: Starter who barely made team out of spring training allows one hit in seven innings.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published April 25, 2002

[Times photo: Michael Rondou] Ryan Rupe delivers during his seven-inning, one-hit outing.

ST. PETERSBURG -- It wasn't just that there wasn't a spot for him in the rotation at the start of spring training. Or that there was so much talk of him going to Triple-A Durham, he figured it was bound to happen. Or even that after making the opening day roster he feared being shipped out quickly if he struggled.

Ryan Rupe was so much the odd man out that when the Rays handed out their set of team-produced baseball cards last week, there wasn't one for him among the 25 player cards.

"I couldn't even make the team set," Rupe said. "No respect."

This morning, baseball cards are small time; Rupe is in the headlines and TV highlights after a brilliant performance, allowing the Twins one hit over seven sterling innings.

With his pitching and the offense hustling its way to a seven-run fifth inning, the Rays scored another victory over the Twins, this time 9-1 before considerably less than the paid Tropicana Field crowd of 10,761.

By the end of the night, the Rays had won three in a row for the first time since the season-opening sweep of Detroit, Randy Winn and Steve Cox each extended their hitting streaks to 10 games and Greg Vaughn went 0-for-3 to drop his average to .123.

Further, they continued their amazing mastery of the Twins: eight of nine and 12 of 14 overall, nine in a row at the Trop.

"We're getting a taste of our own medicine," Minnesota's Doug Mientkiewicz said. "This is our Bermuda Triangle. Minnesota Twins kryptonite. We get Twin-balled to death here. I think we could switch uniforms when we come in here and you'd see the same club over there."

Though there were other storylines, Rupe was the story.

"An outstanding job," manager Hal McRae said.

The 26-year-old right-hander retired 11 of the first 12 before allowing a fourth-inning double just inside the leftfield foul line by Matthew LeCroy, who then was caught between bases by catcher Toby Hall and tagged out.

Otherwise, Rupe was close to perfect in picking up his team-high third win. He set down his last nine, struck out five, walked one and allowed only five balls to leave the infield.

In other words, he looked nothing like the pitcher who went 5-12 last season with a 6.59 ERA and a team-record 30 home runs allowed.

The biggest difference? Rupe is relying on a sinker rather than a fastball, and making it work.

"The sinker is what's done the whole thing," pitching coach Jackie Brown said, "and to be effective with the sinker you have to keep it down."

The other changes, Rupe said, have been in his head.

"I'm just a little more at ease," he said. "No outs, man on second; I've been in that situation a lot of times now. It's more of an, 'Oh well, here we are,' than an, 'Oh no, here I go.'

"It's hard to get the negative out of your mind when you're a young pitcher who's struggled for a couple years. That negative's tough. But I've been working real hard to keep it out."

Coming into spring training, Rupe didn't have a spot on the team. It wasn't until Nick Bierbrodt developed severe control problems that Rupe even had a true chance, and even then he figured he needed a good start.

"I was the odd man out," Rupe said. "I was. I knew things would have to happen for me to make the starting rotation, but I told myself I'd much rather go to Durham and be a starter than be a long man (with the Rays). ... You don't wish ill will on anyone, but things happened.

"I knew this was my shot to stay in the rotation. We have some good guys here and the circumstances were such that I was the odd man out. And I still could be. But I'm going to make it hard."

About the only disappointment was that McRae pulled him after seven innings and 85 pitches, saying it was more important to keep Rupe fresh and get work for the bullpen than end the Rays' major league-record streak of 170 games without a complete game.

As good as Rupe was, he got plenty of help.

Having dispensed with Twins ace Brad Radke on Tuesday, the Rays roughed up 2001 All-Star Eric Milton.

When they loaded the bases with no outs in the third and got only two runs, it looked like something of a wasted opportunity.

Instead it was a precursor as the Rays posted a season-high seven runs during an 11-batter fifth.

They got some timely hits among their six singles, with Winn and Ben Grieve knocking in two runs apiece. They showed some aggressive baserunning, with Jason Tyner and Hall each scoring from second and Grieve and Russ Johnson going first to third. And they got some help as the Twins made two careless errors that led to three unearned runs.

"We found some holes today," Tyner said. "It seemed like that one inning everything we hit was in a hole. We need stuff like that for us."

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