Close loss encapsulates first half for Tampa Bay

RANGERS 6, RAYS 5: Surprise: Solid pitching wasted, bats inefficient, bullpen blows it.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published July 4, 2002

[AP photo] Texas Rangers' Ivan Rodriguez points to the crowd after hitting the game-winning home run against the Rays Wedneday night.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Rays couldn't have made their 81st game any more representative of the first half of their season.

They fell behind early. They wasted chances but battled back, tying it late. And the bullpen blew it again, Jesus Colome giving up a bottom-of-the-ninth homer to Ivan Rodriguez.

The result was another near miss, a 6-5 loss to Texas that left them with a 28-53 record that matched Detroit for the major-league worst.

"We've actually played pretty good baseball, which is hard to believe if you look at our record," Brent Abernathy said. "But we have been right there with a chance to win the ballgame a lot of times. We've got to figure out what it's going to take for us to get over the hump."

Of their 81 games, they've had 42 decided by one or two runs, and lost 25. They've had 24 decided from the eighth inning on, and lost 13.

The Rays would like to believe close counts for something.

"I think we're a thousand times better than last year at the half," Paul Wilson said. "I think the direction we're going in is a thousand times better, the motivation, the morale ... "

Manager Hal McRae said the best thing about the first half was the way the Rays maintained the proper approach and attitude despite losing nearly two of every three games.

"We've hung tough," he said. "The attitude of the players has been tremendous. The results are not desirable, but we play hard and they care."

Aside from consistent inconsistency, McRae said the Rays' biggest shortcoming through the first half was not knowing how to win.

"That's what every second-division club has to overcome, and the way you overcome that is to win," he said. "You don't overcome that through conversation. There's no way to teach a player to win other than to win."

Wednesday, they had their chances after falling behind 4-0 in an ugly first inning in which Wilson gave up five consecutive hits and Dave McCarty didn't help with some shaky play in leftfield.

The biggest hit was a two-run home run by Rodriguez, whose .398 average against the Rays is the best of any opponent.

Wilson settled down, allowing three singles and a walk over the next six scoreless innings. "I think they were ready for the sinker, I think they knew I was going to come at them with the sinker a lot and we kind of had to step back and figure out what we were going to do next," said Wilson, who hasn't won since May 12.

The Rays had hits in eight of their nine innings but didn't sustain any rallies. They got one run when Steve Cox, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games, homered off Ismael Valdes to open the fourth, and another when Ben Grieve homered to lead off the sixth.

They got within 4-3 in the seventh when Cox brought home Jared Sandberg, who had three hits, on an infield groundout, but they should have gotten more after getting men to second and third with one out.

McRae chose to bring Colome into a close game, and it didn't work.

The Rangers added an important run in the eighth. Michael Lamb reached second on an error by Cox, his first in 55 games, to open the eighth and a bunt and a strikeout of Alex Rodriguez later, Gonzalez ripped a triple off the right-centerfield wall to make it 5-3.

The Rays rallied for two to tie the score at 5 in the ninth with some help from the Rangers when Chris Gomez's routine fly dropped between Texas outfielders Kevin Mench, who appeared to be tracking the ball, and Carl Everett, who let it land at his feet.

With men on second and third, All-Star Randy Winn, a pinch-hitter, scored Gomez with a groundout to second. Cox then singled to right, scoring Sandberg with the tying run. The Rays went on to load the bases, but McCarty grounded out. "We had our chances there," McRae said.

The game didn't last long after that. Colome went 1-and-1 on Ivan Rodriguez, then gave up a homer to left-center on a hanging slider.

In the end, it was another loss and another night to search for a positive.

"We played well and the guys didn't quit," McRae said. "And that's the attitude we're going to have to possess consistently because our ballclub has been a struggling club and probably will continue to be a struggling club. We can't give up. We have to give them a battle."

Today's lineup

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