Schmidt stops Tampa Bay cold

GIANTS 8, RAYS 0: His 5-hitter ends Rays' run of three wins in four games.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published June 20, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- Just when it looked as if the Rays might be putting together a decent run of games and gaining some much-needed momentum ...

The Rays were shut down and shut out by San Francisco's Jason Schmidt on Wednesday, losing an ugly 8-0 game to the Giants.

The Rays managed five hits off Schmidt, two more than the number of batters Ryan Rupe hit in an abbreviated outing that earned him his major-league-high ninth loss.

The shutout was the major-league-leading ninth for the Rays and their eighth in 35 road games.

"We were shut down offensively. We never really got anything going," manager Hal McRae said.

About the only good thing that happened for the Rays was a third-inning single by Randy Winn, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games and adding to his credentials for selection to the AL All-Star squad.

Winn, who started the day as the majors' leading June hitter, joined the league's top 10 in batting with a .312 average. He ranks among the league leaders in doubles (19) and triples (4) and is tied for the lead in outfield assists (7).

Their only other accomplishment was holding Barry Bonds to a single in four at-bats. In the first two games of the series that concludes today, Bonds is 1-for-7 with two walks.

In winning three of the first four on this nine-game interleague road trip, the Rays pitched extremely well (a 2.20 ERA and .207 average allowed) and hit relatively consistently (40 hits and scoring 16).

Wednesday, they did neither.

Schmidt, 3-1 in his past five starts, seemed to have his way relatively easily with the Rays on a chilly night at PacBell Park, striking out 11 and allowing only two runners past second.

He gave up two singles in the first, one in the second and another in the third, then retired 12 in a row before allowing a leadoff single to Jason Smith in the eighth. He then got the last six straight for his first career shutout.

Schmidt had gone 163 starts before pitching a shutout, the second-longest streak among active pitchers, behind only Jason Bere's 199.

"He was pounding the strike zone down and closing up," McRae said. "He knew where to go to get the strikeouts."

Rupe, meanwhile, continued what has been a season of extremes, one in which he has been either very good or very bad.

Wednesday, it was very clear.

Rupe lasted four innings, allowing seven runs on seven hits and a walk while hitting a team record-tying three batters in losing his fourth straight and raising his ERA to 5.54.

"It was one of those days when I didn't have good stuff, and they did what they needed to do," Rupe said. "I threw a bad pitch, and they hit it. And they should have. There were a lot of bad pitches to choose from. That's the way it goes."

"It was just one of those nights when he couldn't keep the ball down," McRae said. "He got better, but he never did hit his stride."

Whereas everything seemed to go right during the first inning of Tuesday's series opener, little did Wednesday.

The Rays got two hits but couldn't get a run. The Giants got three hits, got hit twice and scored three runs.

Rupe's trouble started when he hit Reggie Sanders in the back with his third pitch. He struck out Rich Aurilia and retired Bonds on a deep fly that Winn ran down at the left-centerfield wall. But Jeff Kent leaned into a 1-and-1 curveball, and the Giants started hitting back.

Damon Minor's soft liner to right appeared to fool Ben Grieve, who misjudged it badly, allowing Sanders to score. Minor moved to second on a wild pitch, and Benito Santiago delivered a two-run double to left. David Bell followed with a single to center that made it 4-0.

More sloppiness cost the Rays a run in the third. Kent led off with a single and went to second when Rupe hit Minor.

Santiago hit a grounder to short that should have been a routine double play, but nothing came easy for the Rays. Brent Abernathy bounced the relay to first, and Kent trotted home as the ball skipped off Steve Cox's glove.

The two San Francisco scored in the fourth were much less complicated. Rupe made one mistake by walking Bonds after getting ahead 0-and-2, then a bigger one on a 1-and-1 breaking ball to Kent that didn't break and ended up deep into the leftfield seats.

Steve Kent, pitching for the first time since June 9, allowed a run in the seventh.