RANGERS 5, RAYS 4: "You learn from these games," Lou Piniella says after Tampa Bay wastes rally.
By PETE YOUNG
Published May 12, 2004
[Times photos: Michael Rondou]
Rays starter Doug Waechter grits his teeth after giving up his third homer, a tying shot by Hank Blalock in the eighth.
Toby Hall hustles past Gerald Laird to score in the seventh, putting the Rays up 4-3.
ST. PETERSBURG - There was no target for blame, no scapegoat in the crosshairs.
The Rays lost 5-4 Tuesday to Texas, another in a numbing succession of defeats. It had some familiar, negative characteristics - it was their fourth loss when leading in the seventh inning - but it was essentially defineable only as another loss, their sixth straight.
Just chalk it up as another rough learning experience.
"You learn from these games," Rays manager Lou Piniella said. "That's all you can do."
The Rays rallied from 3-0 down to take a 4-3 lead, but they produced no extra-base hits, just five hits total and flatlined in the eighth and ninth innings.
Doug Waechter pitched well, but he allowed three 400 foot-plus home runs, all on two-strike counts.
The defense was typically solid, but the lone error, by shortstop Julio Lugo in the eighth, led to the winning run.
"We've just got to come up with some W's," Lugo said. "If we're still losing, we're getting nothing accomplished."
Waechter (1-3) yielded a two-run home run to Laynce Nix in the third and the first of Hank Blalock's two home runs in the sixth, but he stood to be the winning pitcher when he took the mound in the eighth because the Rays scored two each in the sixth and seventh.
With one out in the sixth, Carl Crawford walked and stole second, and Rocco Baldelli was hit by a pitch. Aubrey Huff reached on shortstop Michael Young's error to score Crawford, and Tino Martinez singled in Baldelli.
In the seventh, the Rays brought many of the 10,389 in attendance to their feet by tying it on Crawford's sacrifice fly. That chased starter Ryan Drese, and the Rays took the lead on a single up the middle by Huff (2-for-4) off of Erasmo Ramirez.
Texas wasted little time sucking the air out of the building in the top of the eighth. Blalock led off with his second homer and eighth of the season, a 436-footer to left on a 2-and-2 pitch. Then Alfonso Soriano's sharp grounder induced Lugo's error.
Waechter walked Brad Fullmer and was pulled after throwing 122 pitches. A few batters later, Kevin Mench's groundout off Danys Baez scored Soriano with the winner.
It was just the Rays' ninth unearned run of the season. Only Seattle (seven) had fewer in the AL entering Tuesday.
"I kept forcing some pitches that I'm trying to work on," said Waechter, who has allowed eight homers in 26 innings. "I'll just have to learn from it."
Said Piniella of sending Waechter out for the eighth: "He was feeling good. I asked him.
"We gave it back to the first hitter, then they get on (with) an error and a walk. (Waechter) threw the ball well. Texas can hit."
The Rangers have nine players batting over .300. The Rays have none, as Crawford dropped below .300 after going 0-for-3 Tuesday. Toby Hall had two hits to take the team lead at .294.
"We booted one ball there that led to the winning run, but outside of that we played well defensively," Piniella said. "We've given up a few home late in the game that have hurt.
"You've got to learn, that's all you can do is learn. Learn from it and go on."
