Pace has Rays falling toward all-time losers

Rally, solid outing by Paul Wilson aren't enough in a 6-4 loss to Indians, putting Tampa Bay on course for 109 losses.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published August 15, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- Every night, the Rays' season seems to be getting more and more forgettable. But actually, they're getting closer and closer to making it more memorable.

Or at least historic.

The Rays lost again Wednesday, 6-4 to the Indians, putting them on pace to become only the third American League team in the past 60 years to lose as many as 109 games.

If the Rays keep losing at the rate that got them to this point with a 39-80 record, they will finish 53-109. The last AL team to lose that many was the 1996 Tigers, preceded by the 1979 Blue Jays. After that, you have to go back to the 1939 St. Louis Browns, who went 43-111.

Wednesday night, like many other nights, the Rays played well enough to be in the game and had a chance to win.

And, like most other nights, they ended up losing.

Worse, they have lost 10 of 16 since starting a monthlong stretch of games against other losing teams, such as the White Sox, Indians and Royals.

"Naturally we match up better with some of the clubs we've played of late, but it boils down to how well you play," manager Hal McRae said. "If we don't play well, we're not going to beat anyone, so it doesn't really matter so much who we play as how we play.

"We play close games with everyone in the league. At some point it boils down to how many you win, not how many close games you play, because a loss is a loss."

The Rays, who lost for the 38th time by one or two runs and the 34th time when they had the tying or winning at the plate in the ninth, know that better than any other team.

The loss extended their streak of winless series to a team-record 13, going back to June 28-30 against Florida. It is the longest streak in the majors since the 1999 Cubs went 15 series without winning one.

To avoid becoming the first team in more than 20 years to lose 100 or more games in back-to-back seasons, they would have to win 24 of their remaining 43.

The Trop was rocking much of the night Wednesday, though it had considerably more to do with the thunder, lightning and torrential rain outside than the action on the field. There were several leaks around the concourses.

After falling behind 2-0 on a Jim Thome homer in the third, the Rays battled back to tie on a homer by red-hot Aubrey Huff, who leads the majors with 41 hits since July 19, and a sacrifice fly by John Flaherty.

The Indians went back ahead 3-2 on a broken-bat, run-scoring single in the fifth by Ellis Burks, who earlier became the 222nd player to get his 2,000th hit, but the Rays were in it until a sloppy eighth.

With Wilson Alvarez making his first relief appearance at the Trop, and being booed by the remnants of a paid crowd of 10,455, the Indians scored three on one swing, a bouncing ball by Karim Garcia that went over first baseman Steve Cox's head.

The rally started when Paul Wilson, who had another good outing despite snapping a three-game winning streak, allowed a one-out single to Burks. McRae didn't want Wilson to face Thome again, so he played the percentages and brought in the left-handed Alvarez.

Thome, despite batting 100-plus points lower against lefties, didn't oblige, hitting Alvarez's first pitch off the top of the wall in the leftfield corner for a double. An intentional walk to Travis Fryman loaded the bases, and Garcia, 8-for-20 with 10 RBIs in five games against the Rays, doubled to right.

Wilson, 5-8 with a respectable 3.83 ERA, was pleased with his performance but not the result.

"I felt like I threw the ball pretty well; it just didn't work out," Wilson said. "It's frustrating because I was trying for a little better outcome than that. But they did what they had to do to win a ballgame tonight."

The Rays, who scored two in the ninth and got Carl Crawford to the plate as the tying run only to have him strike out, don't do that nearly enough.

"Obviously there are a lot of teams out there better than us and we have to find a way to get better," Flaherty said. "The opponent, yeah it matters, but a lot of times we bring our mistakes on ourselves more than our opponent forces us to. We've got to start playing good, solid baseball and take our chances against whatever team we're playing."