'One of them years' drags on for Sturtze

ANGELS 4, RAYS 2: Starter ties team record with 15th loss but feels he's pitching okay.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published September 5, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- The numbers, specifically the 15 losses against three wins, say Tanyon Sturtze is among the worst pitchers in baseball this season, a disappointing performance that has him tied for the major-league high, and the Rays team record, for defeats.

Sturtze says otherwise.

He says he has been a victim of circumstance, a lightning rod for bad breaks and worse luck. He says he hasn't pitched that badly and not much differently than last season, when an 11-12 performance earned him a much different kind of honor, the Rays team MVP award.

"I feel like I'm the same pitcher," he said. "Things are just not happening right now. I know I can win baseball games here. You (reporters) watch the games too. I'm pretty sure you guys know I can start in this league and pitch in this league.

"It's just one of them years and, unfortunately, it's happening to me."

What happened to him in Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Anaheim wasn't much different than what happened in many of his first 28 starts.

He pitched okay -- "Good enough to win," manager Hal McRae said -- but his team didn't get him many runs and he made a key mistake or two that cost him dearly.

This time it was a wild pitch in the seventh, a bounced split-finger fastball that allowed catcher Bengie Molina to advance to second, then score the tiebreaking run on a single by Adam Kennedy, who has been among the league's top hitters the past five weeks.

"The wild pitch hurt me," Sturtze said. "It put the catcher in scoring position for a guy who's pretty hot right now. I think I broke his bat on a split and he dumped it in front of Benny (Grieve in rightfield)."

Grieve "didn't play it well," McRae said, allowing Molina to chug home. The Angels added a run when Kennedy stole second and scored on a single by David Eckstein, the former Florida Gator who keeps the Angels moving, and that was about it for the Rays, who lost to Kevin Appier for second time in a week and sixth overall.

"Appier seems to have our number," McRae said. "We struggled against him out there and we struggled against him tonight. We did not swing the bats well."

If it was of any consolation, not many people saw the Rays lose their 91st game of the season. The game was not on television in either market and it appeared to be another 2-for-1 night at the Trop, with one person showing up for every two who were counted in the announced paid attendance of 10,161.

The Angels didn't mind. To them, it was a chance to move a step closer to their first playoff berth since 1986, and they did so by increasing their lead over Seattle for the AL wild card to 31/2 games.

"They've played well and they're a good club; they've been doing it day in and day out," McRae said. "To their credit, when we make mistakes or errors they capitalize on them, and that's winning baseball."

Sturtze, whose 5.01 ERA is below the team average, insists there isn't much difference between how he has been pitching and winning.

He has received the lowest run support of any American League pitcher, 3.59 runs per nine innings. But he also leads the league in hits allowed (237) and walks allowed (81), though he didn't walk any Wednesday.

"If you look at the numbers, he needs to cut down on base on balls and he's been pitching up in the zone," McRae said. "He could easily have won another four or five games; everyone can that goes out there. But a lot of the damage was caused by himself, and the numbers bear that out."

With the loss, Sturtze, who will be eligible for arbitration next season for the first time, tied Colorado's Mike Hampton, Milwaukee's Ben Sheets, Kansas City's Jeff Suppan and Chicago's Todd Ritchie for the major-league loss lead.

With four scheduled starts remaining, he also tied the team record for losses in a season, matching Tony Saunders, who went 6-15 in 1998, and Bobby Witt, 7-15 in 1999.

On the positive side, Sturtze pitched his fourth complete game, giving the Rays a major-league high 12, and pushed his innings total to a career-high 1972/3. The team record is 202 by Rolando Arrojo in 1998.

"I don't think I've pitched that bad," Sturtze said. "I don't think I'm a 3-15 pitcher. It's just the way things have happened this year."