Piniella's warning goes unheeded

WHITE SOX 7, RAYS 2: anager cautioned against inconsistency. Tampa Bay must not have heard.

CHICAGO - Frank Thomas was being warmly congratulated by his White Sox teammates and loudly cheered by the Chicago fans after hitting his 400th career home run in the fifth inning Friday night, but Lou Piniella hardly noticed.

The Devil Rays manager was standing on the mound, having dispatched starter Jorge Sosa after he gave up his fourth run of the inning, talking animatedly to catcher Toby Hall, his arms flailing, trying to figure out what had gone so wrong so quickly in what turned into a 7-2 loss.

"I was talking to Toby that when the breaking ball is hanging you've got to find another pitch," Piniella said. "Either that or go out to the mound and remind your pitcher you've got to get the damn thing down.

"That's part of a learning process."

Someone reminded Piniella that - in a season when the Rays have won only 36 times in 101 games - he seems to say that a lot.

"And I'm going to say it a few more times - unfortunately," he said.

The sloppy effort came - believe it or not - only a day after the Rays notched one of their most impressive victories, pounding contending Boston for a team-record 21 hits and scoring a record 15 runs for the second time in five days.

But afterward, as the players enjoyed the win, Piniella issued a cautionary tale. "Now what we want to see is some consistency with it," he said. "I'm not talking about 15 runs, but consistency."

As if on cue, the Rays illustrated his point, albeit against a sizzling White Sox team that won it's eighth straight.

Sosa wasn't sharp, rookie third baseman Antonio Perez made an error that led to a three-run first inning and the hitters couldn't do much in their second chance against Esteban Loaiza, who continued his remarkable season by winning his 13th game and maintaining a league-best 2.19 ERA.

To make the night worse, Rocco Baldelli was doused with beer by a fan during a fifth-inning play, leading to a slight delay.

"We faced a pretty good pitcher and then we spotted him three runs, which made his job a whole lot easier," Piniella said. "But, at the same time, we didn't mount much."

Sosa had had relatively good results since rejoining the rotation (2-2 with a 2.59 ERA in four starts), but tends to be inconsistent and rarely in full command.

Friday, he was in trouble from the start, giving up three runs (and a very long out) in the first on three hits and Perez's error on a sharp grounder.

He got out of the inning with a double play then, in maddening fashion, strung together three 1-2-3 innings before falling apart in the fifth.

Hits by the No. 7 and 9 hitters led to one run, a walk preceded Carlos Lee's two-run homer and Thomas' blast on an 0-and-1 pitch made it 7-0.

"I tried to throw the slider down in the dirt and it was hanging," Sosa said. "I feel like that's when I lost the game."

Hall said the problem wasn't selection of the pitches, but the location - sliders that were staying up and over the plate instead of breaking into the dirt.

"You try to get a pitch to a certain spot, and if it gets hit it's a bad pitch," Hall said.

Thomas became the 36th to hit 400 home runs, including Fred McGriff and Jose Canseco, who did it as Devil Rays, but said it was only an interim accomplishment.

"The goal is 500," Thomas said. "People say it will take a long time, but home runs come in bunches."

The White Sox players were waiting for Thomas in the dugout, the fans stood and cheered until he came out to salute them, and the team played a short video tribute.

Loaiza, the AL All-Star starter, shut the Rays out until Hall - batting .326 over his past 12 games - hit a two-run homer in the seventh.