Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff WriterRAYS 3, JAYS 0: Lou's message - just play better - is heeded as the second half opens.
TORONTO - Manager Lou Piniella welcomed the Devil Rays back from the All-Star break Thursday with an additional workout, a brief speech and a simple message: to play better, and win more often, than they did in the first half.
For one night, anyway, it sounded good.
And looked even better.
The Rays responded with a crisp performance to beat the Blue Jays 3-0, recording their first shutout win in nearly a year and staging one of their best overall performances of the season.
Casey Fossum pitched a career-high 72/3 innings, Jorge Cantu twice followed sacrifice bunts with run-scoring singles, and the Rays flashed good defense all around.
Plus, there was a rare no-walk night by the pitching staff, a ninth-inning insurance run courtesy of Damon Hollins' homer and All-Star Danys Baez's adventurous but effective 14th save.
"We had very, very solid defense," Fossum said. "We manufactured some runs. We got some key bunts down. It seemed like a well-managed game by Lou, the way he was sending people. It was a real fundamentally sound game.
"It couldn't have worked out any better."
Piniella was pleased with the team's play as well as his personal milestone, breaking a tie with Earl Weaver to take over 19th place on the all-time wins list at 1,481.
"That was a good way for us to start the second half," Piniella said. "It was a good game all the way. We played good defense, we got good pitching, we got some timely hitting. When you don't walk anybody and you catch the ball, your chances of winning really increase.
"That's what we did tonight, and that's really what we need to do with more consistency the second half of the year."
Fossum delivered one of his best performances as a Ray, if not of his career, working quickly and efficiently and keeping the Jays off-balance. He allowed two of his four hits in the second, then regrouped and sailed through the middle innings, retiring 12 straight and 15 of 16.
"It definitely ranks up there," Fossum said.
After working the players on fundamentals Thursday afternoon, Piniella told them he wants to see more fight.
"I said, "Get in the middle of the ring, don't rope-a-dope. Have some pride. And think team. That's it.' It was a positive message. You've got to play hard."
Essentially, he told them he expects improvement:
"Win as many games as you can the rest of the way. I said to them, "Are we going to win a division? No. But we can play better than we did in the first half.' And that's our goal."
The Rays did a lot of things right Thursday, breaking up a pitcher's duel between Fossum and Ted Lilly.
They got their first run in the sixth when No. 9 hitter Nick Green drew a leadoff walk, Carl Crawford bunted him to second and, one out later, Cantu rapped a two-out single. They added another in the eighth when Crawford was hit by a pitch, Julio Lugo bunted him to second and Cantu delivered again.
"That's the kind of thing we want to do, go out and play hard like we've been playing," Cantu said. "The second half is a new beginning, new life. Those are the kinds of games we need to keep up with. Our pitchers keep us in the game and we do the little things, and we can win some more ballgames in the second half. He made a lot of sense in that meeting, and that was good."