Rays blow it in ninth then lose it in 12th

Esteban Yan can't hold a 4-3 lead, and Michael Tucker's double ends it.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 10, 2002

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It should have been over in the ninth inning.

Not the 12th. Not 3 hours, 58 minutes after the first pitch Friday at Kauffman Stadium.

"This was simply a blown opportunity to win a baseball game," Rays manager Hal McRae said after a 5-4 loss to the Royals.

Tampa Bay appeared to have the game won when Andy Sheets hit a go-ahead homer, his second of the season, in the eighth inning.

But that was before closer Esteban Yan came on to pitch the ninth, before he allowed the Royals to tie the score. "Any time you take a lead into the ninth inning, that's supposed to be the ballgame," McRae said. "That's basically what you play for, a lead late in the ballgame. We had everything in place and simply let it get away."

Having converted six of his previous seven save opportunities, Yan allowed a single, a walk and a broken-bat single by Aaron Guiel to tie the score at 4.

"A broken-bat base hit, there's nothing you can do. Nobody could catch that ball," said Yan, who has five blown saves this season. "I've got to get ready for the next day."

Three innings later and with Travis Phelps pitching, Michael Tucker doubled home third baseman Joe Randa to win a game that featured four ties and 27 hits. Despite the woes of the bullpen, the Rays received another solid performance from starter Joe Kennedy.

The left-hander, who had a chance to pull his record to .500 this season, allowed two earned runs on nine hits in seven innings. He struck out two and walked two while throwing 124 pitches, his second-highest pitch count of the season.

"I had about 12 different arm angles, six different landing spots," Kennedy said. "I just have to tip my hat to (catcher John Flaherty) for keeping everything in front of him."

Kennedy entered on a two-game winning streak. But his pitching stats on the road had been noticeably worse than at Tropicana Field.

Kennedy was 3-4 with a 5.72 ERA away from home and looked as if he would continue the trend against the Royals.

Kansas City got nine runners on base in the first four innings as Kennedy allowed six hits, walked two and hit one. But it managed only two runs.

Kennedy settled down after the fourth inning.

He retired five of the seven batters he faced in the fifth and sixth, getting some help from an inning-ending double play in the sixth.

After the Rays took a 3-2 lead in the seventh on a run-scoring single by first baseman Steve Cox, Kennedy gave it back in the bottom of the inning with a single allowed and an error on a potential inning-ending double play ball by Chuck Knoblauch.

"It was just one of those days where I was just all over the place," he said. "I was just battling all night to keep us in the ballgame. There was always somebody on base. I was battling. I was fighting the whole time.

"I'm pretty much mentally exhausted right now."

Sheets by far had the most up and down night of anybody on the field.

The homer in the eighth was redemption of sorts for the veteran shortstop, who an inning earlier mishandled a potential inning-ending double play that allowed the Royals to tie the score at 3 in the seventh inning.

"But if I would've turned that double play, we would've finished a long time ago," Sheets said. "I just kind of rushed it and gave them that easy run. Fortunately, I got one back with that home run."

He also made his share of plays in the field, including the fielding of a grounder in the 12th that ricocheted off third baseman Jared Sandberg's glove. Sheets threw to second to get the only out of the inning.