New way to lose

RED SOX 5, RAYS 3: Comeback falls short as Tampa Bay ties its mark with 11th straight loss.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published May 7, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- You could say, one supposes, that the Rays are making progress.

Rather than giving up more late runs or blowing another lead, they lost Monday because their own ninth-inning comeback fell short.

[Times photo: Michael Rondou] Rays starter Tanyon Sturtze waits for a ball after giving up a home run to Brian Daubach in the seventh inning, giving the Red Sox a 5-1 lead.

The result, however, was the same before a Tropicana Field crowd of 11,564. The 5-3 loss to Boston extended their losing streak to 11 games, matching their franchise worst and the major-league season high and dropping them alone into last place for the first time this season as they welcome the Yankees to town tonight.

"We just need to win a game," manager Hal McRae said. "The Yankees are the next opponent, but we just need to win a game. We need to win some games."

The Rays have had opportunities to win most of the games during the streak. Whether that makes 11 losses in a row easier or harder to take is open for discussion.

Of the 11, eight were by one or two runs. Four times, the Rays led in the ninth inning. Three times they were one out from victory.

"Over the course of a year if you keep giving yourself chances, the outcome's going to change," Greg Vaughn said.

Monday, that change seemed to be in the offing.

Down 4-0, the Rays scored when Brent Abernathy homered to lead off the sixth. Down 5-1, they got back into the game when Steve Cox opened the seventh with a bloop double and Toby Hall, mired in a deep slump, delivered his first home run of the season to make it 5-3.

Facing knuckleballer Tim Wakefield in the ninth, they got the winning run to the plate with no outs thanks to some help from the Red Sox.

"I felt like we could steal one back," Jason Tyner said. "The ball seemed to be bouncing our way that inning."

After Vaughn drew a leadoff walk, the Rays got what for them was a rare break. Cox tapped a ball back to the mound that should have been a double play, but Wakefield's throw sailed over second, snared by second baseman Rey Sanchez.

With men on first and second, Hall, after showing bunt, popped out. Chris Gomez kept them alive with a sharp grounder off third baseman Shea Hillenbrand's glove for an infield single that loaded the bases.

With Ben Grieve apparently unavailable as a pinch-hitter because of a bruised left thumb, the Rays stuck with Russ Johnson, who is in 4-for-29 slump. Wakefield got a pitch down and Johnson grounded into a game-ending double play.

"Vaughn had a great at-bat to get a leadoff walk, the guy opened the door with the throwing error and we got a big hit by Go-Go," Abernathy said. "You're getting excited and everything and you're thinking, okay, tonight might be the night we can turn the tables on the other team. But the guy made a good pitch and got the ground ball double play, and it's like all the air got let out of the balloon."

It was, by the way, the first double play the Rays grounded into during the streak.

"That's the way things are working out for us right now," Abernathy said.

It was, basically, that kind of night for the Rays. Tanyon Sturtze allowed 13 hits, tying the club mark for a game. But 11 were singles, and more than half of those were bloopers, infield hits or ground balls through a hole.

"The ground balls just found holes and there's nothing he could do about that," McRae said.

Sturtze, 0-4 and clearly frustrated with his performance, wasn't placated by anything after the game.

"I know I can pitch better," he said. "To give up 13 hits in a start is absolutely ridiculous. There's no excuse for that. Whether they're ground balls through the infield doesn't matter. They're base hits. It's unacceptable to me."

The losing streak matches the midseason performance of the 1998 team, which dropped 11 games from June 30-July 13.

That team finished 63-99. This one is on pace for a horrific 49-113 record, though no one thinks this group is that bad.

"I don't think we're going to get down," McRae said. "We can't afford to get down or let up. And things will start to go our way if we continue to play the way we've played. My concern is that we hang tough to give ourselves a chance to get the breaks that you get when you're doing things right.

"Because if we stay close someone will give us one. They tried to give us one tonight. Someone eventually will give us one. And you have to be in position to take advantage of it when it does occur."

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