Stranger than fiction loss for Rays

RED SOX 6, RAYS 3: Esteban Yan, with the help of some bungling defense, blows a 9th-inning lead.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published September 13, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- If you hadn't seen it so many times, you'd think it was fiction, the setup to a made-up story.

So there's this team called the Rays, y'know, and they don't win too often, but Thursday they were beating Boston, which they, like, never do, and this guy, Esteban Yan, was pitching in the ninth inning, and then, it was just, like, the strangest things happened ...

In reality, it wasn't that strange. Nor was it unusual.

What looked like a welcomed victory instead turned into another staggering defeat, as the Rays again blew a ninth-inning lead to give -- and that is meant literally -- the Red Sox a 6-3 win, a sweep of the four-game series and a perfect 10-0 record this season at Tropicana Field, which doesn't look anything like Fenway Park but sounded like it this week.

"I feel," Rays shortstop Chris Gomez said, "like someone just punched me in the stomach."

It was the 10th game the Rays have lost this season after leading with one or two outs in the ninth, and they at least deserve style points for the creativity involved -- specifically the old drop-the-popup-with-the-bases-loaded-then-botch-the-throw-to-the-plate play.

"I don't know what happened," Rays manager Hal McRae said. "Neither play was a good play."

The Rays' 3-2 lead was the product of strong pitching by Victor Zambrano, another Aubrey Huff home run and clutch hits by Jason Conti and Russ Johnson off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Losing it was just as much a team effort.

Yan, who had zipped through a 1-2-3 eighth, immediately got into trouble in the ninth, walking Nomar Garciaparra on a full-count pitch and giving up a single to Manny Ramirez.

First baseman Steve Cox, who had a most adventurous day, snared a sizzling liner by Cliff Floyd for the first out, but Yan walked Brian Daubach to load the bases.

Yan seemed to catch a break when pinch-hitter Carlos Baerga popped up a 1-and-0 pitch into shallow leftfield, but Gomez, saying later he had it in his glove and squeezed too tightly, couldn't hang on to make the over-the-shoulder catch.

Amazingly, that wasn't the worst part of the play.

Gomez recovered in time to fire the ball toward the plate and had an easy shot to force Garciaparra for what would have been the second out.

But Cox, thinking -- incorrectly, he later admitted -- the throw was off line, tried to cut the ball off. And he didn't even do that right, mishandling it and deflecting the ball toward the third-base line.

"You kind of go by your instincts," Cox said, "and my instincts were wrong."

The Sox got the tying run, Trot Nixon's ensuing single made it 5-3 and Rey Sanchez's ground out provided the final margin.

Gomez and Cox both were willing to take the blame.

"It wasn't a very tough play," Gomez said. "I feel sick about it. I catch that ball, it's a totally different game."

"I messed up, and it ended up costing us the game," Cox said, "which is not a good feeling."

The same couldn't be said for Yan, who blamed home plate umpire Matt Hollowell for not giving him the calls that led to the two walks and then ripped his teammates for failing to make the plays.

"What I saw was an easy fly ball and then he made a throw to home plate and it was a good throw. An easy out. Easy," Yan said. "It's nothing new. The team has played like that all year. (But) I'm not doing my job, I got a blown save, and I lose the game. There's nothing I can say."

The way Yan has pitched this season -- he has an American League-high eight blown saves, a major-league worst .680 save percentage (17-for-25) and a 4.52 ERA -- he probably shouldn't be assigning any blame.

The bigger issue will be whether the Rays will bring him back, especially with his salary likely to double through arbitration to the $3-million range.

But Yan isn't the only problem. The loss, concluding a dismal 1-9 homestand, dropped the Rays to 48-98, putting them 50 games under .500 for the first time in franchise history and putting them on pace to lose 109 games, which would match the 1996 Tigers, 1979 Blue Jays and 1915 A's for third-most in American League history.

"There are just too many holes that need to be filled," McRae said. "It shows up every night, every game."