Newcomer proves himself with winning hit

RAYS 3, A'S 2 (10): Nick Green's at-bat starts bad but ends with a broken-bat single and second straight victory.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published April 9, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Nick Green knew he was in a position to earn some stripes, but even he knew he was blowing it.

A terrible swing at a first pitch, a botched attempt to get down a safety squeeze. In his first start for the Devil Rays, the third baseman had to do something.

A broken-bat single did the trick as he drove in the winning run in a 3-2, 10-inning victory over the A's on Friday night at Tropicana Field.

"When you come over to a new team, you want to prove to the guys that you can get the job done," said Green, acquired March31 from the Braves for pitcher Jorge Sosa.

The victory gave Tampa Bay a two-game winning streak. And it created a five-way tie for first in the AL East with everyone at 2-2 and only 158 games left.

Yes, that's a joke. But after the sour feelings that surrounded the first two games, in which the Rays scored just five runs and lost twice to the Blue Jays, that counts as a bit of a rebirth.

"It's huge," starting pitcher Rob Bell said. "Any time you get runners in scoring position as many times as we did, to get them in when it means something, it's big."

Really big was Joey Gathright's triple to the leftfield wall that opened the 10th and reliever Danys Baez's ability to wiggle out of ticklish situations.

The right-hander came in with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth and got Erubiel Durazo to ground into a double play started by shortstop Julio Lugo. With runners on first and third and one out in the 10th, Baez, who got his second win, struck out Nick Swisher and got Marco Scutaro to fly out to left.

Jorge Cantu homered for the third consecutive game and made a spectacular diving stop of Scott Hatteberg's second-inning ground ball, and Bell provided a quality start, allowing two runs on five hits with six strikeouts in six innings.

"A good win," manager Lou Piniella said. "Our kids battled, battled the whole night."

That is not to say all Tampa Bay's problems are solved.

Green's hit was the Rays' only successful at-bat of eight with runners in scoring position. Runners were left on third base in the seventh and eighth innings.

And after Cantu's home run off Joe Blanton gave the Rays a 2-0 lead in the second, the righty, making his first major-league start, retired 10 of the next 12 batters he faced.

But the A's weren't doing much either. Run-scoring singles by Hatteberg and Mark Ellis tied the score at 2 in the fourth inning. But Oakland, which had five home runs in its first three games, had 11 hits, all singles, left 13 runners on base and was 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

"We had a bunch of chances," A's manager Ken Macha said. "We just couldn't get the big hit."

Which brings us back to Green. After Gathright's triple, the Pensacola native was pumped.

"That at-bat went by so fast," he said. "(After the bunt), I had to step out to calm myself down."

Green got his pitch, a fastball from righty Juan Cruz. But the bat shattered, and the ball had just enough momentum to glide over the outstretched glove of second baseman Ellis, who was playing on the grass.

Nice, right? But Green, who had been 0-for-3 and made an error, wasn't celebrating.

"I would have liked to have done some stuff earlier in the game," he said. "I didn't think I was playing the way I was capable of up until the last at-bat. It was definitely a nice way to end."

[Last modified April 9, 2005, 07:10:29]