A few small oddities but a standard loss

TWINS 5, RAYS 3: Tampa Bay drops its sixth in a row when it fails to hold a 3-0 lead.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published May 2, 2002

MINNEAPOLIS -- There were some things that happened at the Metrodome on Wednesday night that were unusual.

Greg Vaughn got a couple hits, snapping his streak at 0-for-34. The Rays didn't record an assist. The Twins grounded out just once, and that was into an unassisted double play by first baseman Steve Cox. Tanyon Sturtze was ejected after he'd been removed from the game.

And there were some things that happened that were very much commonplace.

The Rays failed to generate enough offense. Their pitching fell short. And they lost their sixth straight, this time 5-3 to the Twins.

"A tough one to lose," manager Hal McRae said.

What made it bad was that the Rays took a 3-0 lead, but Sturtze gave it away in a rough fourth inning. And having already wasted chances to expand their lead early, the Rays blew a prime opportunity in the sixth when they loaded the bases with one out and got nothing out of it.

"We squandered some opportunities to score runs," McRae said. "We just didn't execute."

What makes it worse is what's ahead. After today's series finale at Minnesota, the Rays open a month-long stretch that includes 22 games against league powerhouses Boston, New York, Seattle and Oakland and six against surprising Baltimore.

"I think it's as tough a stretch of games as I can remember us having our first five years," general manager Chuck LaMar said. "Candidly, it's just as rough a stretch as any American League team will go through. It demands us to play better baseball than we did the first month, and let the wins and losses take care of themselves. It's an extreme test for a club as young as ours is and struggling offensively as much as ours is. You can't sugar-coat this. It's as tough a stretch as we've had."

McRae said he can only hope for the best.

"We need to play much better to survive the month," McRae said. Wednesday, against an impressive Twins team that is 11-1 at home, the Rays took an early 3-0 lead, though the bigger news may have been that Vaughn snapped his skid with a double to open the fourth.

The first run came quickly. No. 2 hitter Jason Tyner, snapping an 0-for-8, lined a ball up the middle that rolled to the wall for a triple, and Randy Winn did what he was supposed to do, hitting a sacrifice fly to rightfield.

The Rays added two in the third but wasted a chance for a big inning after getting men on second and third with no out. Tyner and Winn struck out, but Cox salvaged something by lining a 3-and-2 Rick Reed fastball up the middle to make it 3-0.

That was it, though. They got two on in the fourth with one out, but didn't score. They loaded the bases in the sixth with one out and didn't score. They got two on with two outs in the seventh and didn't score. For the night, they left on nine, four in scoring position.

"We just couldn't get any key hits," Tyner said. "We should have won this one."

Sturtze, still seeking his first win, retired the first eight and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third, then gave it away in the fourth.

The Twins hit the ball hard and rapped six hits, including three doubles. But the only pitch Sturtze was upset about was the 0-and-2 split-finger he hung to Tom Prince, who knocked it over the leftfield wall to put the Twins ahead 4-3.

"I thought I threw the ball good tonight," Sturtze said. "I made the one mistake to Prince and it cost us the game.

"I just don't have any, I don't know what you'd call it, maybe luck right now. Maybe I'll have to get a tattoo of a four-leaf clover on my (butt) or something. I don't have any idea right now."

Sturtze left after 51/3 innings, having allowed a career-high 11 hits. After watching Tyner called out on an extremely close play in the seventh, he said some things, apparently a few choice things, to first-base umpire Tim Welke, who ejected him.

Of their 24 outs, the Twins made 13 in the air, nine by strikeout and two when Dustan Mohr grounded to first and Cox tagged the base and then Corey Koskie.

As odd as the unassisted double play was, it was more unusual that the Rays did not have an assist the entire game, obviously tying the major-league record.