Bad judgment helps odd A's shift work

ST. PETERSBURG -- Athletics manager Art Howe couldn't have scripted it better.

Then again, Rays manager Hal McRae said it wasn't Howe's doing.

With the bases loaded, one out and Greg Vaughn batting in the 10th inning, Howe set up a five-man infield, with rightfielder Olmedo Saenz at third, third baseman Eric Chavez at short and shortstop Miguel Tejada about 15 feet left of second. The two remaining outfielders were in shallow right-center and left-center.

Vaughn lined to Chavez. He threw to Tejada, who tagged (and fell over) Randy Winn trying to get back to second. Inning over.

"We had a pretty good sinkerballer going (Chad Bradford) and were hoping (Vaughn) would hit it into the shift somewhere," Howe said. "I've tried that a few times in the past. I don't think it's ever worked."

McRae, without mentioning him directly, said it was Winn's fault. "The decisive run was at third," he said. "The only runner that should have been doubled was Russ Johnson (at first) because he had a responsibility to break up a double play at second. He had to be aggressive. Nobody else had to be aggressive. ... We ran into a double play."

BACK TO THE BULLPEN: With Wilson Alvarez starting tonight for the Rays, the odd man out of the rotation is Travis Harper, returning to the bullpen as long reliever. Harper started three games after Delvin James went on the DL.

In his first relief appearance Thursday night, Harper won with two shutout innings.

McRae said Alvarez will be limited to about 80 pitches. "And I won't stretch him at all," McRae said. "It won't be a case of seeing how far he can go."

Harper got his only other win May 19 at Baltimore, going five innings and teaming with Steve Kent for the Rays' first shutout of the season.

"As a starter, you have to set the tone," said Harper, who had a 4.29 ERA in his three starts to 1.23 in three previous relief appearances. "As a starter, I knew if I did the same things I was doing out of the pen I would get guys out and give us some good quality innings.

"I tried not to change anything and tried to stick with my game plan there. That worked well." Harper started 89 of 92 games in his career coming into this season, including seven of eight with the Rays the past two seasons. He was 1-4 combined in those two seasons and 39-20 in parts of four in the minors.

RAYS BITS: Thursday's attendance, 10,130, was the lowest of the season, 134 fewer than May 12 vs. Baltimore. ... John Flaherty extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a fourth-inning double down the leftfield line. ... Jared Sandberg's three hits matched his career high and was the third time he has done it. ... The Rays are errorless in seven games, matching the team record set in 1998 and equaled last season. ... The 19 hits by the Rays fell one short of their record set against Seattle in 2000 and equaled against Baltimore last season. ... Paul Hoover, called up Tuesday from Durham, is scheduled to make his first start of the season Sunday, replacing Flaherty and catching Ryan Rupe, a teammate at Class A Hudson Valley in 1998. Shortstop Felix Escalona will start in place of Chris Gomez.