Rays bats catch fire in Baltimore heat

RAYS 7, ORIOLES 3: Tampa Bay hits club-record 3 HRs in second on brutal night.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published August 20, 2002

BALTIMORE -- The temperature at the start of Monday night's game was a sweltering 100 degrees. But it was the second inning when the Rays really got hot.

Ben Grieve, Chris Gomez and Steve Cox homered -- the first time in the Rays' 771-game history they have hit three home runs in an inning -- and Paul Wilson battled through the oppressive heat for eight innings as Tampa Bay hung on for a 7-3 victory over the Orioles.

"We're getting better," manager Hal McRae said. "We're doing some better things. Gradually, we're doing some better things. The records are not on the negative side so much as they were early on."

For a rare night, the Rays got to see how the rest of the American League lives, taking advantage of a team that played as they often do, making bad pitches and sloppy plays. They scored seven in the inning and cruised to a relatively easy victory.

The Rays are 18-16 at Camden Yards, the only American League park in which they have a winning record, and lead the overall (37-35) and season series (9-7).

"I don't know what it is," Grieve, the Rays rightfielder, said. "It's not an outstanding record, but if you consider our record against the rest of the teams I guess it's pretty outstanding that we're playing so well against the Orioles. But there's no reason for it."

Wilson similarly said there was no explanation for his success against Baltimore. He is 4-1 with a 2.72 ERA in six starts against the Orioles this season, 2-7, 4.18 against everyone else.

"There's no rhyme or reason," Wilson said. "That's a good fastball-hitting team over there. (Chris) Richard's back, they've got (Jeff) Conine back, so that's a very good lineup. At the same time they'd seen me five times this year and they knew I was going to throw sinkers at them, and I think they were pretty prepared for it."

Of equal concern Monday was the heat, even for Wilson, who grew up in Orlando and pitched at Florida State.

"I'd be happy if I don't ever have to pitch in that heat again," said Wilson, his face covered with red splotches from heat rash. "The heat was pretty demanding tonight. I wasn't ready for that. But the guys scored some good runs for me and played great defense and I just tried to get as many outs as I could."

The temperature was the highest ever for a Rays game, considerably warmer than the cool 72 degrees they play in at Tropicana Field, and there wasn't much they could do about it except complain.

There was some concern about second baseman Brent Abernathy, who was hospitalized after an Aug. 11 game in Kansas City because of dehydration. But the Rays gave Abernathy electrolyte tablets before the game and kept pumping him with water and electrolyte-loaded sports drinks between innings and he was fine, strong enough to lift weights after the game.

As soon as the Rays gave Wilson the 7-0 lead, he gave part of it back, allowing a leadoff walk in the second and a two-out home run to Marty Cordova. He gave up a leadoff homer to Tony Batista in the fourth, then allowed only two baserunners the rest of the way. Travis Harper, part of the new closing committee, worked the ninth.

The seven-run inning against Travis Driskill started with one out when Grieve hit his first homer since July 30. Gomez then knocked a 3-and-1 pitch into the leftfield seats, giving the Rays their second set of back-to-back homers of the season.

It was Gomez's first homer in 106 at-bats but his eighth of the season, matching the team season record for a shortstop he set in 58 games last season. He also matched the single-season RBIs record for a shortstop with 36.

"I love expansion teams," Gomez said.

The Rays kept up the attack after there were two outs. Randy Winn reached on an infield hit, Carl Crawford singled and Aubrey Huff came up with another big hit, knocking in Winn. Crawford scored when Batista made an errant throw from third, and Huff came in when Driskill threw a wild pitch. Cox wrapped things up with a two-run homer, his first since Aug. 10.

"There haven't been too many big innings this year," Grieve said. "The good teams do this all the time. That's the difference, I guess."