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MARC TOPKINWHITE SOX 3, RAYS 2 (10): Piniella fumes after lapses allow Chicago to rally.
CHICAGO - The thing about the Devil Rays is that it's always something.
So far, hitting and pitching woes have led to most of manager Lou Piniella's hissing and moaning.
Friday, they had problems just catching and throwing the ball.
And after a 3-2, 10-inning loss to the White Sox, Piniella was as angry and as loud as he has been after any game since he took the job last season, the sounds of his frustration echoing through the solemn clubhouse for a long time after the game.
"It was a comedy of errors out there," Piniella said. "You can't win baseball games playing like that."
There were plenty of mistakes to talk about, including an error by shortstop Julio Lugo and a balk and a wild pitch by closer Danys Baez that set up the winning run, but Piniella was not interested in discussing the specifics.
"What can I say? You saw it, write it," he said, voice rising. "Just write it. Write it just the way you saw it! I don't need to explain it. Write it just the way you saw it. That's all."
Well, okay then ...
In the seventh, a bad throw by catcher Toby Hall and a worse one by Lugo allowed the Sox to tie.
Hall fired to second when Aaron Rowand, who led off with a double, was slow getting back to the bag, but his throw drifted to the wrong side of second base. Lugo had to make a full spin after catching it, then made an off-balance throw to third that sailed high, the ball ticking off Geoff Blum's glove and into the camera pit at the end of the White Sox dugout, with Rowand awarded home.
"Unfortunately, the ball went into the dugout, that's what killed us," Blum said. "And it seemed like it was in slow motion, the ball just creeping into the dugout."
In the eighth, a dropped popup by second baseman Rey Sanchez nearly led to the go-ahead run, the Rays escaping because Chad Gaudin got the out he needed.
And in the 10th, a hard but routine grounder by Magglio Ordonez that Lugo booted started the sequence that ended the game.
"I was horses--- today," Lugo said. "It happens. It happens to everybody. I think I was the best player the White Sox had today."
Kelly Dransfeldt failed to get a bunt down, but Ordonez advanced to second anyway when Baez was called for a balk for starting his motion. "I got a little bit confused with the signs," Baez said. "I made a little move and he called a balk."
With first base open, the Rays put Carlos Lee on, but Baez then bounced a 1-and-1 pitch to Paul Konerko, allowing the runners to move up another base.
The Rays then put Konerko on to load the bases, and Joe Crede ended the game with a fly ball to rightfield, plenty deep enough for Ordonez to jog home.
"We made some bad plays at bad times," Blum said.
Victor Zambrano kept the Rays in the game, though as usual he made it an adventure. Zambrano gave up five hits, walked two, hit two, threw a wild pitch and had men in scoring position in four of his seven innings, but only two crossed the plate.
The first came in the fourth when Frank Thomas, who hadn't played since irritating his right hamstring Sunday at the Trop, lofted a 2-and-0 Zambrano pitch over the leftfield wall.
The other came in the seventh after the Rays started throwing the ball around.
"When you lose the game, it's hard to be happy," Zambrano said.
The Rays did better this time against Esteban Loaiza. The White Sox right-hander made them - in Piniella's words - "look silly" at Tropicana Field on Sunday, allowing only two singles in a 5-0 win.
In seven innings Friday, the Rays got eight hits and two actual runs off him, both in the fourth. Carl Crawford singled to left-center. Lugo, who failed in a key situation Thursday, brought him home with a double that rolled to the left-centerfield wall. With one out, Robert Fick scored Lugo with a single to left.