Rays officially sick of it

YANKEES 5, RAYS 2: Tampa Bay again wastes good pitching to set team mark with 12th straight loss.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published May 8, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- The souvenir car flags the fans were waving might just as well have been white flags.

The Rays played another decent game Tuesday against another quality opponent and ended up with another loss, a 5-2 defeat to the Yankees that was their franchise-record 12th straight, if you're still counting.

[Times photo: Michael Rondou] Rays manager Hal McRae, left, and pitching coach Jackie Brown can't hide their frustration after Jesus Colome's wild pitch in the ninth gives the Yankees a 5-2 lead.

Nearly two full weeks since their last win, the Rays still are talking about how they're playing well, they're being competitive, they're just a break away from winning.

But the words don't mean nearly as much anymore.

"Right now the frustration is really starting to set in," Brent Abernathy said. "There's a time when you can take all the positives out of it and feel great going into the next game. But there comes a time when the frustration sets in."

"This isn't fun right now," Steve Cox said. "You can try all you want and everything, but sometimes trying just doesn't get it done. And sometimes playing well doesn't get it done. You need to win. You can play well and not win, but we need to play well and win. That's something we're not doing. You're just thinking, 'When's this going to end?' "

The 12-game streak is the longest in the majors since 1997, when the Cubs lost 14 straight and the Royals 12. It matched the third-longest streak in the past 10 years and left them 9-22, worst in the American League.

By now, the details are beginning to blur. Tuesday, before an announced crowd of 15,031, the smallest to see a Yankees game at Tropicana Field, Paul Wilson pitched well, but Mike Mussina and friends pitched better. The Rays got one big hit, a two-run single by Jason Tyner in the sixth. The Yankees got a few, including a two-out single by Derek Jeter in the seventh that put them ahead for good 3-2.

"This was sort of a replay of some other ballgames," Rays manager Hal McRae said. "We pitched well, our starter did a good job, but we didn't score enough. Two runs is not enough."

Most nights during the streak, the Rays have gotten good starting pitching (a 4.37 ERA in the 12 games) and minimal offense. On the nights they've hit the ball, the pitching has faltered, usually spectacularly.

"The question is when we'll be able to put everything together to get over the hump that ends this thing and start playing some winning baseball," Abernathy said. "All it takes is one game to put everything together and this whole thing will be behind us. Get that winning feeling back."

They appeared to have that chance Tuesday. The Yankees scored an early run and Mussina allowed one hit through five innings, but the Rays took a 2-1 lead when Tyner slapped a two-run single in the sixth.

It didn't last long, thanks to some impressive two-out hitting by the Yankees. No. 9 hitter Nick Johnson and Alfonso Soriano hit back-to-back doubles, then Jeter delivered the game's biggest hit. Behind 1-and-2, Jeter fouled off two pitches, then took an outside fastball to rightfield to bring in the go-ahead run.

"I was not going to let him strike me out," Jeter said. "No way."

Wilson had a shot at the Rays' first complete game in 183 starts, dating to April 13, 2001, but he couldn't get the final out as the Yankees rallied again and ended up with two more runs.

"No one thinks about going out and losing 12 games in a row," Wilson said. "We have to focus on good things. We can't give up. We can't quit. We've got to focus on good things right now. Sometimes it's harder than others.

"We've got to focus on the idea that we've been playing good baseball, we've been in ballgames and it's just things haven't gone our way later in the ballgame. We're going to get there. We're going to get there because you can't be in as many ballgames as we've been in and continue to lose."

It sounded good, and McRae said much the same thing, that the Rays just have to stay positive and keep trying. "We've got to give it a chance," he said.

But as the Rays again trudged out of the clubhouse, the sounds of defeat were more noticeable.

"We haven't listened to music in here after a game in two weeks it seems like," Cox said. "There's been no smiling in here in two weeks, been no anything. It's not a good mood to go home in."

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