Moss latest to irk

ORIOLES 7, RAYS 6: Piniella's frustration with starters grows as another fails to last 4 innings.

BALTIMORE - There were plenty of reasons the Devil Rays lost to the Orioles 7-6 on Thursday.

Relievers Jorge Sosa, Trever Miller and Chad Gaudin did their part in blowing a 6-4 sixth-inning lead. Catcher Toby Hall couldn't hang on to a throw that might have kept the winning run from scoring. Rocco Baldelli made a throwing error and Geoff Blum didn't make a couple of key plays. Tino Martinez and Julio Lugo failed in key situations to drive in at least the tying run.

Lou Piniella, however, put the blame on the starting pitching.

Thursday, it was Damian Moss, who got everyone out in his first three innings and could hardly get anyone out in the fourth, giving away a 3-0 lead by giving up four runs.

But the manager's frustration is mounting on a wider scale, his dissatisfaction obvious with a rotation that so far has featured only two reliable starters, Victor Zambrano and Paul Abbott.

"The only way we're going to start winning with any consistency is to get a damn rotation that can pitch better than what ours has," Piniella said. "That's all. That's really the bottom line to this whole thing. You see why we can't win two in a row? ... Because we don't get two good-pitched games out of our starters in a row to give us a chance to win two in a row. And until we do that, the path of least resistance is going to be down."

Moss, banished to the bullpen after a poor spring, hoped to make a good impression in his first start. He couldn't have started any better, retiring the first nine Orioles as the Rays built a 3-0 lead.

But the fourth inning was a hint of what was to come, a series of miscues by the Rays and well-placed hits by the O's.

Moss made one of the biggest mistakes, throwing wildly past first after fielding Melvin Mora's bunt to put men on second and third. Baldelli missed the cutoff man after Miguel Tejada singled, the throw sailing up the line from home. That allowed Tejada to second, and he came around on two ground balls the Rays could get only one out each on. A broken-bat single by David Segui made it 4-3 Baltimore and ended Moss' night after 58 pitches.

Moss, however, had a different view of his outing than Piniella.

"I think I did a great job," Moss, 27, said. "I think it's a good progression. I felt like I established the strike zone with my fastball and kept the hitters off-balance. They didn't hit the ball real hard. ... That's just the way baseball is sometimes."

The Rays went back ahead 6-4 with some much-needed production from the middle of their order: a single by Baldelli, Aubrey Huff's first double of the season and a two-run homer by Robert Fick.

The problem was that the bullpen couldn't hold it. Sosa gave up a homer to Rafael Palmeiro to make it 6-5 in the sixth. Miller allowed a bloop double to Brian Roberts with two outs in the seventh, and Gaudin gave up a double to Mora that scored the tying run and a single to Tejada that scored the winner, Mora sliding in when Hall couldn't hold rightfielder Jose Cruz's sizzling throw.

And when the Rays had their chance in the eighth, the bases loaded with one out, Martinez struck out against B.J. Ryan and Lugo grounded to short.

To Piniella, the problem started earlier. Zambrano and Abbott are 5-2 with a 3.30 ERA in their seven starts. In the other seven, Moss, Mark Hendrickson and Jeremi Gonzalez are 0-5, 8.18.

"To win with any consistency you need your starting pitching to give you a chance," he said. "And invariably we've had two pitchers here all year that have done it, Zambrano and Abbott. And the rest of them? They've been out there."