Sturtze left out to dry after rain delays

ORIOLES 5, RAYS 3: Bullpen lets another one slip away, and the Tampa Bay starter still is waiting for a win.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 18, 2002

BALTIMORE -- The pitcher was riding high, one victory shy of a Rays record for wins in a row.

But in the second inning against the Orioles on Aug. 26, 2000, at Camden Yards, Tanyon Sturtze threw a split-fingered fastball and felt a pop in his left side.

He threw a pickoff to first. He threw another pitch. He didn't throw again that season.

At the spot where his 2000 season ended, Sturtze appeared on his way toward his first win this season when Mother Nature stepped in during a 5-3 loss by the Rays in a game that carried into this morning.

"I was kind of hoping things would change tonight," Sturtze said. "I was kind of hoping the rain kept coming for a little bit longer and they would call it. But that's the way things have gone this year for this whole team."

The start of the game was pushed back 74 minutes because of light rain.

But it was a 72-minute rain delay in the sixth that forced Sturtze out with a 3-2 lead, leaving it up to Victor Zambrano.

Baltimore tied it that inning on an error by third baseman Jared Sandberg and took the lead on a 431-foot home run by Jeff Conine in the seventh before a few hundred of the 36,914 who originally entered the stadium.

The game ended at 12:04 a.m. and took 2 hours, 37 minutes to complete not counting rain delays.

"I think they just won," first baseman Steve Cox said. "I don't think it had anything to do with the delays or anything like that. I think they just got a big home run by Conine. That was the difference."

The Rays have lost two straight and 18 of 21, and could be without their starting catcher for a day or two.

Toby Hall, whose homer in the fourth gave the Rays a 3-2 lead, left in the eighth after a foul ball hit his right thumb. X-rays were negative and he's day to day with a bruise.

Sturtze, winless in nine starts this season, finished with two runs on four hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out one.

"I thought he was pitching well and he felt good about the way he was pitching," manager Hal McRae said. "It all evaporated with the ground-ball error at third."

Baltimore took a 1-0 lead in the second on a single to centerfield by Geronimo Gil and made it 2-0 on a run-scoring single by Conine in the third.

"I felt good through the whole game," Sturtze said. "I gave up a couple of runs but I thought they were on some good pitches. I felt good."

As had happened in two of the previous three games, Tampa Bay was held without a hit through the first three innings.

Calvin Maduro, scheduled to start Thursday against Cleveland until that game was rained out, didn't allow a hit until Cox lead off the fourth with a single. He was followed by Ben Grieve, who also singled, but was forced out at third on a fielder's choice.

Hall then hit his second homer this season on the first pitch he saw from Maduro to erase Baltimore's 2-0 lead. It was Hall's first home run since May 6.

Hall has slumped for most of the season and was hitting .108 since April 18. But there have been signs he might be easing his way out.

He went 2-for-5 with two RBIs against the Yankees on Wednesday and finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs on Friday.

The game was stopped the second time at 9:50 p.m. and restarted with Willis Roberts pitching for the Orioles and Greg Vaughn at-bat.

Vaughn walked and advanced to third on Hall's double, but the Rays stranded a runner at third for the third time in the first six innings.

Orioles reliever Buddy Groom and closer Jorge Julio combined to allow one hit in the final two innings.

The Rays had two runners on with one out in the ninth, but Julio got Brent Abernathy to fly out to center for the second out before getting pinch-hitter Randy Winn to ground out to second base on a 3-and-2 count to end the game.