Without luck, Rays bats have nothing

JAYS 3, RAYS 1: Stellar defensive play helps keep Tampa Bay's offense in its extended funk.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 5, 2002

TORONTO -- If things were going differently for Rays batters right now, maybe Steve Cox's one-hopper skips off the end of the second baseman's glove Tuesday and into the outfield.

Or perhaps Dave Berg isn't in the lineup at all.

"That's the crazy thing about this game," said Cox, the Rays first baseman. "It's the good and the bad. It's not the most fun thing to deal with sometimes, but everything works out the way it's supposed to."

If that's the case, Berg was destined to dive to his right and snag Cox's ground ball in the eighth inning at SkyDome, making a play that prevented a run and ended the Rays' final attempt to stop a 3-1 loss to Toronto before 13,162.

Tampa Bay, which wasted a complete game from starter Paul Wilson, has scored three runs or fewer in 33 games.

"Somehow we've got to generate more offense," manager Hal McRae said.

The Rays are batting .233 and have stranded 62 runners while converting 65 hits and 21 walks into 20 runs over the past six games.

They have been outscored 16-34 in five straight losses.

The problem?

McRae believes the offense's woes stem from an inability to hit a pitch thrown 75 percent of the time: a fastball.

The pitch, he said, affects a hitter's timing.

"It's not fatigue," he said. "The fastball sets up everything we do offensively. It affects your balance, which naturally allows you to see the ball and stay with the ball.

"But when they beat you with the fastball, they can beat you with every other pitch they have. If we just do our jobs on the fastball, we don't have to concern ourselves with whatever the pitcher does."

Though they gushed about the jobs Toronto starters Pete Walker and Justin Miller have done the past two nights, players are well aware of the rut they are in.

"Everyone is struggling right now," Cox said. "They're off. Everyone is just off. It's hard to explain, but the main thing about hitting is good timing.

"If you're going bad, anybody can get you out. If you're going good, you can hit anybody. It just depends on you. It's not always the pitcher. How you're going, your confidence level, all that stuff."

Miller allowed one run, a home run by Jared Sandberg with two outs in the fifth, in seven innings. He struck out six and walked three.

The Rays left five runners on and grounded into inning-ending double plays in the second and seventh. They've still grounded into only 25 double plays this season.

"(Miller) was working quick, knew what he wanted to do and was getting the job done," second baseman Brent Abernathy said. "In that situation we've got to find a way to maybe get him out of his groove. Sometimes it's not going to work. Sometimes it does."

The only mistakes Wilson made were two pitches to Eric Hinske. The third baseman hit both over the centerfield wall in the fourth and eighth. Toronto's other run came in the first on a single by Jose Cruz.

"I threw two pitches where they weren't supposed to be and they both got hit out of the park," Wilson said. "That was the difference in the ballgame tonight. The guy over there threw a great game. He kept us in check."

The Rays couldn't ask for much more from Wilson, who has gone seven or more innings in seven starts and allowed three runs or fewer in six.

It was his second career complete game and first since May 3, 1996, when Sammy Sosa hit a walkoff home run at Wrigley Field while Wilson was pitching for the Mets.

"I lost that game, too," Wilson said. "That doesn't make you feel any better about it. All I want to do is go out there and try to get my ballclub a chance to win."

The Rays have three complete games in the past 14, an impressive mark considering they went a major league-record 194 without one.

"Paul did another outstanding job today," McRae said. "He made a lot of good pitches today. Three runs is below the average for the league. When a pitcher goes out and only gives up three runs, that's a game that you should win."