A'S 9, RAYS 6: Billy McMillon's 3-run walkoff homer caps a 3-game sweep of road weary Tampa Bay.
By TOM JONES
Published August 30, 2004
OAKLAND, Calif. - The Devil Rays deserved to reap more than they sowed over the weekend.
They're pretty much playing out the string, well into the dog days of another losing season. Only one starting pitcher remains in the rotation from opening day and he (Mark Hendrickson) is on shaky ground. Their lineup is a tapestry with a different third baseman every game, infielders taking turns playing the outfield and a batting order that looks different every time it's posted on the clubhouse wall.
And for three days, they lined up against the first-place Athletics and gave everything they had. The only thing they didn't get in return was a victory. The A's completed a three-game sweep 9-6 Sunday before 30,538 at Network Associates Coliseum.
"We battled them for three days," manager Lou Piniella said. "We gave them everything we had. We played our hearts out in this series and just fell short. What can you do?"
Despite losing a pair of one-run games Friday and Saturday, the heartbreaking loss in this series came Sunday when the Rays rallied to tie with two outs in the ninth, but lost when Billy McMillon hit a three-run walkoff homer off Danys Baez with one out in the bottom of the inning.
"Fastball," Baez said. "I wanted to go down and away and the ball was right down the middle."
The Rays trailed 6-4 with two outs in the ninth when Aubrey Huff and Jose Cruz hit back-to-back homers off closer Octavio Dotel to stun the crowd and tie the score.
While Huff and Cruz's homers did not produce ultimate victory, they did get starting pitcher Scott Kazmir off the hook for the loss. After pitching five shutout innings in his major-league debut Aug. 23 against Seattle, Kazmir looked more like a 20-year-old rookie Sunday.
He lasted three innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on nine hits. Yet, Piniella had nothing but praise for Kazmir.
"You know what I really liked about the kid? He got hit a little bit, but he kept throwing strikes and he didn't run out there," Piniella said. "He battled."
It didn't take long for the Athletics to snap Kazmir's major-league karma. They roughed him up for three runs in the first and three more in the third to knock him out of the game.
"I really didn't feel like I had lost confidence that I couldn't get hitters out," Kazmir said. "I kept throwing."
That's what Piniella liked.
"It's good to see a young kid face a little adversity and not run away from it and challenge you head to head and man to man," Piniella said. "These guys swung the bats over there, but he didn't start nibbling or start bouncing pitches. He kept going right after them and that's a good indication of what a young man is made of. So, to me, it's a positive."
Also positive in Piniella's mind was the six-game road trip as the Rays went 3-3 in Seattle and Oakland.
"But when you start 3-0 like we did," Piniella said, "you start to get a little greedy."
Particularly tough to swallow was the Rays had a legitimate chance to beat 17-game winner Mark Mulder, who gave up four runs on seven hits with six walks. But the Rays hit into five double plays.
"Boy, if you're going to get Mulder, (Sunday) was the day," Piniella said. "We had our chances. But, hey, we played good on this trip."
Good enough to sweep the Mariners, but not good enough to avoid getting swept, deservingly so or not, by the Athletics.
