Some odd mojo ends Rays skid

RAYS 7, PIRATES 1: Pitchers labor but allow one hit, bats come through in clutch.

ST. PETERSBURG - There was the Friday the 13th mojo, there was the lightning strike that knocked out the stadium lights and delayed the game, there was the manager talking pregame about using "fu-fu" and dying his hair.

And then some really strange things happened at Tropicana Field.

The Devil Rays got some clutch hits. They got some key outs. They got some breaks.

And they got a victory, beating the Pirates 7-1 to snap a seven-game losing streak that had Lou Piniella resorting to all kinds of inspirational methods.

It was an odd, perhaps ugly, win, Victor Zambrano and three relievers combining on a one-hitter while allowing 12 baserunners. But no one was complaining, not when they hadn't won since June 4.

"Let's just talk about the win," Piniella pleaded. "It's nice to get on the winning side. It's been a while."

The night began ominously, neither team getting a hit through 31/2 innings. That's when a lightning strike knocked out the stadium field lights, and when play resumed after an 18-minute delay Jason Tyner rapped the game's first hit, singling to center.

The Rays took it as a sign.

"The power outage woke us up," Aubrey Huff said. "Everybody around the dugout was talking that hopefully that will be the thing that kicks all the bad baseball gods out of here. I don't know what it was, but Tyny leading off the inning right after that with a single, you kind of had a feeling something was going to happen."

The Rays went down 1-0, then finally got some of the bounces and breaks that had eluded them, tying the score in the fifth, going ahead in the sixth and busting it open in the eighth. It was their first win by more than four.

"We had the horseshoe tonight," Huff said. "Finally."

In the fifth, a hard grounder by Marlon Anderson (who'd been 0-for-19) went off second baseman Abraham Nunez's glove for a single, Damian Rolls' blooper dropped on the rightfield line for a double and umpire Gary Cederstrom made a favorable call on a close play, ruling Anderson got his foot on home though Pittsburgh's Jason Kendall had the ball.

In the sixth, a 40-foot bouncer by Travis Lee (who'd been 9-for-60) scored the go-ahead run when pitcher Kip Wells made a diving grab but couldn't make a play at the plate, allowing Rocco Baldelli, who had tripled, to score.

In the eighth the Rays loaded the bases on a Lee triple and two walks and cashed in when Julio Lugo's fly ball sailed just inside the leftfield foul pole and just over the fence for the team's first grand slam of the season.

"It wasn't a big shot, but it went the right way," Lugo said.

Zambrano had a maddening start, putting the leadoff man on in six of his seven innings, but allowed one hit, and a bloop single by Jack Wilson in the fifth at that. Zambrano walked five, hit three, threw four wild pitches (one shy of the AL record) - and won.

What saved him, and the Rays, was the ability to get the outs when he needed them. The Pirates, who have lost six straight, left four men on third, nine overall.

No one was more relieved than Piniella, who had a friend suggest using a "fu-fu" (or good-luck charm) to break the streak, and who promised to dye his hair - "any legitimate color" - if the Rays could win three straight.

"It was a good win for us," Piniella said. "It really was."