Falling familiarly flat

MARINERS 7, RAYS 6: Tampa Bay overcomes Wilson Alvarez's poor start but not a late home run.

[Times photo: Michael Rondou] Wilson Alvarez leaves the mound after allowing five runs in 1 2/3 innings.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 15, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- It had the look, sound and feel of a clubhouse all too familiar with this brand of loss.

The stereo was silent. And while coaches remained after a 7-6 loss to the Mariners on Sunday at Tropicana Field, Rays players spoke in whispers before leaving the scene as quickly as possible.

"It's pretty downtrodden," relief pitcher Doug Creek said. "We keep trying to look at positives. But we're losing a lot of ballgames, and it hurts."

Sunday's game had a familiar feel.

It was the 19th one-run loss for the Rays this season, 23rd decided in the seventh inning or later and 30th decided by two runs or fewer.

"At least to me, they are kind of starting to run together a little bit," Rays second baseman Brent Abernathy said. "Sometimes, you can pick out plays in a game or times in the game that were the turning points. Here lately, it's hard to find those certain times."

One certainly stood out against Seattle.

Ending the recent stretch of quality outings by Rays starting pitchers, Wilson Alvarez allowed five runs in 1 2/3 innings, was booed off the field by some of the 14,267 fans and forced his teammates to play from behind.

But with help from 4 1/3 innings of solid relief from Creek, Tampa Bay wound up tying the score in the sixth inning only to lose when Ruben Sierra hit a homer off Travis Phelps two innings later.

"I give them credit," said Seattle manager Lou Piniella, whose team won the season series 5-4. "If they played everybody like they play us, they wouldn't be as many games under .500 as they are. We're happy to get out of here."

Said Rays manager Hal McRae: "I'm proud of everyone. They had a chance to win this ballgame. I would've bet money that it wouldn't happen with (Garcia) on the mound and playing a good ballclub.

"But we battled back and took our whacks at him and scored enough runs to stay in it and had a chance to win it late."

Rays starting pitchers had allowed nine earned runs during their past 39 innings entering the game.

The 32-pitch outing was Alvarez's shortest since Sept. 26, 1999, and came 10 days after a 2 2/3-inning meltdown against the Rangers.

In that game, the left-hander blew a 6-0 lead and was relieved after allowing seven runs.

"He was just flat," McRae said. "The last two starts, he's been flat. He's coming off surgery, so maybe his arm is not responding to five days' rest.

"Or maybe he has a tired arm or a dead arm."

Alvarez, who missed the past two seasons because of shoulder surgery and is being paid $8-million in the final year of his contract, is tentatively scheduled to pitch Saturday.

He was not available for comment after the game.

"His velocity was back," said pitching coach Jackie Brown, who had a closed-door meeting with McRae after the game. "But he didn't have his location. He still needs location."

Creek allowed one run, a homer by second baseman Bret Boone in the fifth, in his longest relief appearance since July 26, 1997, when, playing for San Francisco, he went five innings against the Pirates.

That allowed the Rays to pull within 6-2 entering the sixth inning, when they tied it with four consecutive two-out hits.

On the eighth pitch of his at-bat, Chris Gomez doubled down the leftfield line off Garcia to drive in Ben Grieve and Jason Conti to make it 6-5.

Garcia, unbeaten in six games against the Rays and making his first appearance since the All-Star Game on Tuesday, was replaced by Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

Jared Sandberg hit the first pitch he saw from Hasegawa for a double that made it 6-6.

"If I was a fan, I probably would've been ready to leave after three innings with that guy on the mound," McRae said. "If they would've left the stadium, they would've missed a good show.

"It was one of our better efforts because of who the opposition was and who the pitcher was that we were facing."

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