ST. PETERSBURG - How much better was the Devil Rays' six-hour flight to Seattle because they won the final game of their homestand?
Not that the 2-1 victory over the A's on Sunday at Tropicana Field was a classic. But it snapped a four-game losing streak and was Tampa Bay's second win in 12 games.
"It definitely makes for a better trip," outfielder Jose Cruz said. "It's a crazy game. We just have to have a short-term memory about everything and start every day like it's the first day of the season."
"Maybe," manager Lou Piniella said, "this signals a little bit of a turn for us."
Especially on a day in which things seemed to turn for the worse and the players felt the need for a private, pregame meeting.
Aubrey Huff, the team's best hitter, was out with back spasms that stopped his streak of consecutive games at 398, second longest in the majors.
Outfielder Carl Crawford, the league's leader in triples and stolen bases, played only the ninth inning as a defensive replacement because of a bruised right shoulder.
Closer Danys Baez was not with the team because of what Piniella said were personal reasons.
And centerfielder Rocco Baldelli is still on the disabled list. But Dewon Brazelton pitched seven sturdy innings and allowed one run on five hits. Cruz had a sacrifice fly and hit his 17th home run in the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie.
Jesus Colome retired six of seven batters he faced for his third save, and the defense was impenetrable.
Let's repeat that: The defense, which last week made six errors in two games, was impenetrable.
"We made some hellacious plays out there. We really did," Piniella said. "God Almighty that was fun watching those kids play defense today."
Shortstop Julio Lugo and second baseman Rey Sanchez began three double plays between them. And Sanchez's backhand flip to Lugo after charging Mark Kotsay's slow-rolling eighth-inning grounder was not only slick, but produced an out at second.
Third baseman Jorge Cantu was nimble in the eighth, throwing out Bobby Crosby after a nicely placed bunt. And Damian Rolls ended the game by catching Erubiel Durazo's foul ball while bending over the low leftfield wall.
But it started with Brazelton. The right-hander, 6-4 overall, is 6-1 at the Trop, and he walked only one. Not bad considering he averaged 2.9 in his previous 14 games.
"Their guy was good," A's manager Ken Macha said. "He spotted the ball well."
"Just my normal game," said Brazelton, who won the first and final games of a 2-4 homestand. "I'm just trying to go out there and throw strikes and cut down on walks and give my team a chance to win."
His only costly mistake was Durazo's tying home run in the fourth. As for the players-only meeting, Cruz said it was no big deal.
"Just basically to dig deep," he said. "We still have games to go. Try to battle it out and keep going. Get the energy up type of thing."
"Now let's see if we can go on the road now and stabilize a little and win a little more regularly and start getting in that feeling again," Piniella said. "It's been a struggle to say the least."
