RAYS 9, RED SOX 6: A six-run third, Tampa Bay's biggest inning this season, and solid relief work help bring a five-game skid to an end.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published May 21, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Maybe it was just a matter of time. Maybe it was the manager questioning their character the night before. Maybe it was Geoff Blum's attempt to change their luck by throwing out all the T-shirts from the season-opening trip to Japan.
The reason wasn't really that important to the Devil Rays on Thursday.
It was the result that mattered.
The Rays beat the Red Sox 9-6 to snap a five-game losing streak in a big way, riding a six-run third inning while riding out another wild performance by Victor Zambrano, who walked a team-record nine.
"We've been waiting for that inning for a long, long time," manager Lou Piniella said. "That's as good as we've swung the bats, forget an inning, in a ballgame all year. ... We hit the ball hard, we hit it crisp, we drove the ball, we had some motion on the bases. ...
"It's our best offensive game of the year in that inning."
The six runs were the most they'd had in an inning all season. The seven consecutive hits were one shy of their record. The nine batters they sent to the plate matched their season high.
"We all wanted to go into the box that inning," Blum said. "I don't know what it was."
It started innocently enough, with a one-out single by No. 9 hitter Brook Fordyce, then a double by Carl Crawford. Rocco Baldelli bounced a single through the middle of the drawn-in infield, scoring two. Aubrey Huff lined a single up the middle. Tino Martinez singled to right to score Baldelli. Jose Cruz doubled home two. And Julio Lugo doubled home Cruz to complete the scoring, expanding a 1-0 lead to 7-0.
"A long time coming, I guess," Huff said. "It felt good to get out there and put up the runs. When everybody's hitting you can relax. ...
"The more hits that come, the more confidence you get. Hopefully that'll be the game that kind of sets us off."
For a while, it looked like a game that could have set them even further back.
Zambrano took one look at the 7-0 lead and nearly gave it all back in one of the wildest pitching performances of his wild career. He walked in two runs among the nine free passes, struck out eight and threw 132 pitches - all in 42/3 innings.
"We were looking to stop all the losses, and we got it done today no matter what happened," he said.
The Sox closed to within 7-6 in the fifth, including a Jason Varitek home run that went up and never came down, lodging in the D-ring catwalk above rightfield.
The Rays pulled it out by adding on with run-scoring singles by rookie Jonny Gomes (his first career RBI) and Fordyce (his first RBI of the season), and strong relief work, especially by Jorge Sosa, who struck out David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in the eighth. Danys Baez finished with a scoreless ninth inning for his fifth save in five opportunities.
Overall, Rays pitchers struck out a season-high 15.
The 16 hits were a season high, but the Rays know they have to string together a few more good nights, and at least win back-to-back games for the first time this season, before they can truly think they're back.
But Thursday, it felt pretty good just to come out on top for only the second time in more than two weeks.
"It feels good to come into the clubhouse and be able to talk and listen to some tunes," Huff said. "It feels like we haven't won in here in forever. We can all go home and sleep tonight."
