Rolls' D digs hole

ANGELS 10, RAYS 2: Tampa Bay can't recover from new outfielder's misplays.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published September 4, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- Promoted from Triple A for his first major-league action of the season Tuesday, Rays outfielder Damian Rolls spent the day reminding himself to be calm: "Stay within yourself. Just play how you play. Stay relaxed."

And then the game started.

Rolls had hits in his first three at-bats, but his misadventures in leftfield -- he misplayed one ball and missed two others -- factored heavily in what turned into a sloppy 10-2 loss to Anaheim.

"It was kind of like, 'Wow,' " Rolls said. "It felt like every single play was to me."

The ball he misplayed in the third, a hard single with two outs and two on, allowed one additional run to score and set up another. The foul ball he unsuccessfully chased across the bullpen mound in the sixth kept Adam Kennedy at the plate to deliver a run-scoring single. And the fly ball that went over his head later in the inning became a three-run double rather than the third out of what turned into a five-run Anaheim rally.

"He was probably trying a little too hard," manager Hal McRae said.

Rolls heard about it from the fans, but at least the abuse wasn't loud. The paid attendance for the team's first home game in more than two weeks, and first since the resolution of the labor contract, was 10,146, third-lowest of the season. Fewer than half actually showed up as there were several sections of lower-deck seats with only a handful of people.

By the time the night was over, and there probably were about 1,000 fans left by the end of the nearly three-hour game, the Rays had allowed 12 hits (seven in five-plus innings by rookie Jorge Sosa, who had another inconsistent start), made two errors and walked six, one with the bases loaded.

"We took it on the chin tonight," McRae said. "I thought we were gaining momentum but the five runs in the sixth kind of threw us for a loop."

The Angels were playing to hold on to their spot among the AL playoff qualifiers. They have a 21/2-game lead over Seattle for the wild-card playoff spot and trail Oakland by 31/2 in the West.

The Angels showed why they are 83-54 and on pace for 98 wins, and showed the difference between a Rays team that is 48-90 and on pace for 106 losses.

In the third, they had two outs and nobody on and went on to score three. In the sixth, they scored three after two were out.

"You can't give them more opportunities to score runs," shortstop Chris Gomez said. "They're relentless. They've got two outs, or two out and nobody on, and they're battling."

Rolls, 24, spent all of last season with the Rays but was sent to Triple A this season to concentrate on making the conversion from infielder to outfielder. He played well for the Bulls, despite missing about 10 weeks with a thumb injury that required surgery, and was inserted into Tuesday's lineup to add a right-handed bat against Anaheim ace left-hander Jarrod Washburn, who improved to 16-5 with a pedestrian five-inning effort.

When Orlando Palmeiro singled hard to left with two on in the third, Rolls admitted he was trying to do too much, deciding how quickly to charge, thinking about making a throw to the plate, changing his path to the ball, which ended up glancing off his glove and rolling to the wall.

"There were a lot of different things going through my mind and with all the different thing I forgot about the ball," he said.

He made a valiant run for Kennedy's foul ball in the sixth but lost his footing on the bullpen mounds. Kennedy took advantage, singling in a run off reliever Travis Phelps.

Rolls was playing shallow, as instructed, when Palmeiro -- who was batting third despite having no home runs in 92 games -- came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs later in the inning.

But Palmeiro got the ball up in the air and Rolls, who didn't appear to take the most direct route, couldn't catch up to it and three more runs scored to make it 8-2.

"I moved in a little bit because I didn't want him to beat me with a little cheap hit," Rolls said. "If he was going to beat me I wanted him to beat me deep ... and that's pretty much what happened. I tried to get back to it but it was one of those things."

And for the Rays, it was another one of those nights.