Poor pitching doomed Rays, who now begin long trip home to Tampa Bay.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published March 31, 2004
TOKYO - The Devil Rays wrapped up their trip to Japan in disappointing fashion today, losing 12-1 to the Yankees.
The Rays left after the game to fly home from Japan, and poor performance was only going to make the trip seem longer. With a 14-hour flight time and a 14-hour time difference, the Rays are scheduled to arrive home around the same time they left Tokyo, around midnight Wednesday.
The losing effort came after what had otherwise been a successful season-opening trip to Japan that exposed the Rays to Japan's feverish baseball fans, and picturesque and historical country to the Rays.
"I went and saw a few things," manager Lou Piniella said. "I saw some things on the field I didn't like tonight."
Most of the problems were on the mound, as the Rays allowed the Yankees four homers - two three-run shots to Jorge Posada, a two-run shot by Tony Clark and a two-run shot by native son Hideki Matsui that turned the Tokyo Dome crowd of 55,000 into a rock concert.
Jeremi Gonzalez allowed five runs on four hits, including two homers, and walked four in 4 2/3 innings. And that wasn't the worst of it. Of the 77 pitches he threw, 39 missed the strike zone.
"It's disappointing," Gonzalez said. "I have to work harder."
The five relievers who followed didn't do much better. Damian Moss, for example, hit his first batter, walked his second and gave up a three-run homer to his third.
The Rays led 1-0 early, much to the delight of the couple thousand fans who turned out at 5 a.m. Tampa Bay time to watch at Tropicana Field and much to the dismay of virtually all the 55,000 who packed the Tokyo Dome.
But the moods began to shift quickly on both sides of the world, and the Rays fans had to wish they'd never gotten out of bed.
The Yankees tied the scored in the third, went ahead 3-2 in the fourth, then broke the game open with a five-run fifth.
