Rays bats upstage Bonds

RAYS 8, GIANTS 3: Joe Kennedy keeps slugger in check to take advantage of rare outburst.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published June 19, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds?

He caused more of a stir with his mouth, challenging Travis Harper after a pitch behind his legs in the ninth, than he did with his bat, going 0-for-4 with a walk.

[AP photo] Greg Vaughn, right, is greeted by Steve Cox after hitting a two-run home run against the San Francisco Giants in the second inning Tuesday night.

The story Tuesday night at chilly PacBell Park was the way the Rays hit the ball and the way Joe Kennedy pitched it in an 8-3 Tampa Bay victory over the Giants.

Aubrey Huff and Greg Vaughn homered and Steve Cox had three hits as the Rays raced to an 8-0 lead in the fourth inning and hung on to win back-to-back games for the first time in nearly a month.

Kennedy, meanwhile, took the early lead and did what you're supposed to do, scattering eight hits over seven innings but never letting the Giants back in the game.

In the process, he got Bonds out three times, then walked him in the seventh.

The 23-year-old left-hander won for the fourth time in his past seven starts and may have moved himself into consideration for a spot on the All-Star team by evening his record at 5-5 and lowering his ERA to 4.14.

The Rays are 5-5 against National League teams, 18-39 against American League opponents.

The Giants threatened briefly in the ninth. Harper hit leadoff man Marvin Benard, and the Rays blew a double play when Felix Escalona dropped a relay throw at second. Harper struck out Rich Aurilia, had a brief incident with Bonds before getting him to hit into a forceout, then retired Jeff Kent on a fly out.

The Rays got a handful of breaks to start the game and, even better, actually took advantage.

Randy Winn ripped Livan Hernandez's third pitch to left-center, and Giants centerfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo took off running and promptly fell, giving Winn a triple.

With one out, Cox ripped a ball down the first-base line that kicked off the angled wall and stalled in shallow rightfield, allowing Cox to stretch a single into a double. Just to make sure, shortstop Aurilia mishandled the throw from rightfielder Reggie Sanders.

After Ben Grieve walked, Hernandez bounced an 0-and-2 pitch to Huff, allowing Cox and Grieve to move up a base.

For his next trick, Hernandez neglected to cover first on Huff's slow grounder to first, which scored Cox. John Flaherty drilled the next pitch to left, and just like that the Rays led 3-0.

They added two in the second, after Kennedy messed up a sacrifice situation by bunting the ball too hard back to the mound, when Vaughn crushed a 2-and-2 Hernandez pitch deep into the leftfield seats. Vaughn has homered in 35 major-league stadiums, tying for seventh-most all-time.

They got two more in the third. Huff, who had a hit in five straight at-bats, homered, his fifth in 76 at-bats. The Rays chased Hernandez with singles by Escalona and Kennedy, then scored on another hit by Winn, who is the American League's leading hitter this month.

A sacrifice fly by Flaherty stretched the lead to 8-0 in the fourth.

The Giants came back with a run in the fifth, and two more in the sixth when Benito Santiago homered. They had a chance for more when Shinjo singled with one out, but Kennedy retired Ramon Martinez and pinch-hitter Shawon Dunston.

The Rays didn't do everything right. They had runners thrown out on back-to-back plays in the seventh. Flaherty was caught when the Giants called for a pitchout, then Chris Gomez got picked off.

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