A double dose of misery

ORIOLES 4-8, RAYS 2-2: Tampa Bay dips below .500 in an ugly sweep but insists it's just a blip.

By MARC TOPKIN
Published July 6, 2004

	[AP photo]
	Devil Rays shortstop Julio Lugo lets Jerry Hairston's grounder get under his glove for a run-scoring single in the second inning of the nightcap. Lugo also committed his 13th error of the season in the first, allowing Miguel Tejada to score as the Orioles took a quick 3-0 lead.

BALTIMORE - Even as the Devil Rays kept winning at a stunning pace over the past 61/2 weeks and compiled the best record in the majors over that span, manager Lou Piniella kept warning that they weren't out of the woods.

Monday, they appeared to be lost somewhere in a forest.

The Rays dropped both games of a day-night doubleheader to the woeful Orioles and dropped below .500 to reach the midpoint of their season 40-41.

"A long day," Rocco Baldelli said. "An ugly day."

A team that hadn't lost back-to-back games in nearly a month has suddenly lost three straight, but the players insist it is merely a detour, caused by playing three games in less than 30 hours in two steamy cities, and not a turnaround that has them headed back to their losing ways.

"It was just a tough day; we were a little tired and a little flat," shortstop Julio Lugo said. "I don't think you're going to see the old Devil Rays for a long time."

After the Rays lost the first game 4-2, manager Lou Piniella said he was concerned about the offense, which has averaged fewer than three runs a game over the past week.

After the 8-2 loss in the nightcap, he didn't have anything to say to the media, but from the sound of things he may be talking about making more changes to the pitching staff after Jeremi Gonzalez made an abysmal return, allowing a team record-tying 14 hits in six innings.

During their dazzling 27-8 stretch, the Rays averaged 5.8 runs. In going 3-5 over their past eight games, they have scored 23 runs, an average of 2.9.

"We're struggling to score runs," Piniella said. "We've been shut out twice, we've been getting two or three runs. You've got to score in this league to win with any consistency. It's hard to win with two or three runs."

Baldelli said there is no reason for concern.

"It's just like when we weren't hitting at the beginning of the year and everyone was asking us why and we had absolutely no answer for you," Baldelli said. "Then we started scoring a ton of runs and we had no answer for you then, either. I think it just goes in cycles. And I think we'll be fine."

Huff said the results are the product of facing a string of quality pitchers in the past week, including Toronto All-Star Ted Lilly, Florida's tough trio of Carl Pavano, Brad Penny and A.J. Burnett over the weekend and Baltimore's impressive rookie Daniel Cabrera in Monday's opener.

"It's nothing to be concerned about," he said. "The last thing we need to do is be planting (the idea of struggling) in our head."

He may have a point, though the Rays looked awfully feeble in Monday's night game against Dave Borkowski, a 27-year-old right-hander who hadn't been in the major leagues since 2001 and hadn't won since September 1999. They only averted what would have been their third shutout of the week when Baldelli and Huff homered in the ninth.

Three errors and a handful of other misplays didn't help either, but their bigger problem was the woeful outing by Gonzalez, who was sent to the minors after opening the season 0-4 with a 6.69 ERA and didn't look any better.

He opened the game by allowing four straight hits and had the Rays behind 5-0 after two innings. By the time he was done, throwing 108 pitches in six innings, he had his club-record 11th straight loss, last winning Aug. 19.

"Today was one of those days when the ball was up," Gonzalez said. "I have to put this game behind me and start over again next time."

That's if there is a next time. Minor-leaguers who could get called up from Triple A include starters Jim Magrane and Chad Gaudin and reliever Bobby Seay.

The first game was more competitive, the Orioles taking a 2-0 lead in the fifth, the Rays tying on Tino Martinez's sixth-inning homer and the Orioles going back ahead to stay in the seventh.

Dewon Brazelton got off to a good start, retiring 12 of the first 13, but Cabrera was just as tough, and rightfielder Tim Raines' diving catch to kill a bases-loaded rally in the second seemed a turning point.

Brazelton worked into the seventh with the score tied but seemed to be tiring. With one on and one out, Piniella came to the mound to ask how he felt, and Brazelton said he was okay. Piniella left him in, but it turned out badly as Brazelton got the second out, then gave up run-scoring doubles on back-to-back pitches.

Though Brazelton didn't get the win, he felt he made progress in winning the confidence of his teammates and manager. "Lou's a hard guy, a very hard guy, to earn his trust," Brazelton said. "I'm not saying I've done that, but it made me feel a big vote of confidence for him to come out there and do that. I just wish I'd gotten out of it."

That wasn't the only thing that went wrong on the long, hot day.

[Last modified July 6, 2004, 01:00:19]