RAYS 5, GIANTS 2: Tampa Bay gets the good Victor Zambrano, who doesn't give up a hit until the seventh.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published June 11, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Someday, maybe, the Devil Rays will figure Victor Zambrano out, find a way to make him a more consistent pitcher by harnessing his wildness without toning down his electric stuff.
But for now, they'll just have to take the good with the bad.
As usual, there was some of both in Thursday's 5-2 interleague win over the Barry Bonds-less Giants: Zambrano didn't allow a hit for the first six innings and struck out six, but he also walked six, and he picked up his sixth victory.
"We try to let them put the ball in play, that's our philosophy," catcher Brook Fordyce said. "They don't do it often when he's in the strike zone."
By the time the Giants got their first hit, a clean Damon Minor single leading off the seventh, the Rays had a 5-1 lead. Rocco Baldelli, who 48 hours earlier was hospitalized with a severe bout of food poisoning, did most of the work, breaking a tie at 1 with a three-run homer with two out in the fifth.
"You're looking for some kind of good quote right now, and I can't think of anything," Baldelli said. "I didn't think I'd be playing for a while, so to get in there and get a home run is very nice."
Zambrano is something of a mystery, with good enough talent and bad enough control to keep hitters and pitching coaches awake at night. His statistics are borderline schizophrenic - he leads the majors with 61 walks, but ranks among the American League leaders with 75 strikeouts; he has a 5.15 ERA, but has allowed only a .228 batting average. (Plus, he's 6-1, 3.31 at home; 0-3, 8.19 away.)
"That guy's a pretty good pitcher, huh?" Giants manager Felipe Alou said. "He has one of the best breaking balls. The fastball I didn't see the command. When he gets command of the fastball, he's going to pitch some no-hitters. I'm glad I don't have to bat against that."
Zambrano allowed an unearned run in the first on a walk, a rare Tino Martinez error and a sacrifice fly, and walked the leadoff man two other times. Only two of his six no-hit innings were three up, three down.
He said he didn't realize he had a no-hitter going until he lost it: "After he got the hit and I said, "Oh, my God, that was my first hit.' "
"I didn't either," Fordyce said. "With him, you just try to keep him focused one pitch at a time."
Zambrano had an excellent slider Thursday, and he and Fordyce took advantage of the Giants' aggressiveness and used it early in the count often.
"They hadn't seen it, and it was tremendous," Fordyce said.
Zambrano left something of a mess, having loaded the bases with another single and a walk, but the bullpen did a nice job of cleaning up behind him.
Trever Miller, whose nine previous bases-loaded appearances includes two grand slams and two hit batters, did a nice job setting up and striking out Michael Tucker with a perfect slider. "A big strikeout," manager Lou Piniella said.
"At least I didn't hit the guy this time," Miller said.
Jesus Colome got pinch-hitter Todd Linden for the last out of seventh, then navigated the final two innings for his first save.
The Rays have never thrown a no-hitter. Zambrano was the second Ray to flirt with one in the last eight days - Doug Waechter went 52/3 innings before allowing a hit at Minnesota on June 2. Tony Saunders is the only one who went further, going 72/3 innings against Baltimore on April 22, 1999.
