RED SOX 7, RAYS 6: An early lead is wasted for the second straight night, Jesus Colome yielding a tiebreaking homer.
By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 1, 2005
[Getty Images]
Julio Lugo gets a slap on the hand from Tom Foley after leading off a game with a home run for the sixth time in his career.
BOSTON - The Devil Rays made more dismal major-league history Wednesday by lifting starter Casey Fossum in the seventh, matching the 2002 Rockies record by going 134 games into a season without a complete game.
They also made the Red Sox's night.
With Fossum out, the Rays brought Jesus Colome in, and he quickly allowed the Red Sox to complete another stunning comeback that left the Rays with a stinging 7-6 defeat.
Tuesday, the Rays led 5-0 in the third inning and ended up losing 7-6. Wednesday they led 5-1 in the fourth before the AL East leaders staged their 38th come-from-behind win of the season.
"Even though we go up early, you still have that feeling in the back of your mind that they're going to come back because they've done it so much in the past," leftfielder Carl Crawford said. "We try to keep adding on, but they find a way to stop us. And then what they do is they eat at the lead little by little, and the next thing you know they have the lead.
"That seems to be what happens every time."
It didn't have to happen that way Wednesday.
The Rays took advantage of gusty winds to stage an unexpected display of power against Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, hitting three home runs. Julio Lugo got them started with his sixth career leadoff homer, Crawford extended his career high to 13 with a three-run blast in the third and Travis Lee followed with his seventh homer in his past 22 games.
But Wakefield, who is now 14-1 against Tampa Bay, figured out the conditions and suddenly became unhittable, retiring 16 straight Rays from the end of the third through the eighth.
The Sox, meanwhile, started warming up to Fossum. Homers by Kevin Millar and Doug Mirabelli and some clutch hits and productive outs drew the Sox close, and they tied it in the fifth when major-league RBI leader David Ortiz homered for the third time in the series.
It was still 5-5 when Fossum got two quick outs in the seventh. With his pitch count climbing past 110, he asked manager Lou Piniella for the chance to finish the inning. But he hit Manny Ramirez on the foot ("Better than a home run, I guess," Fossum said), and Piniella brought in Colome, hoping the underachieving right-hander could handle pitching in a key situation.
He couldn't.
Colome got behind Millar 3-0, then left a 3-and-1 fastball over the middle of the plate and Millar hit it off the middle of the large Coke bottle on the light standard above the Green Monster.
Colome said Millar always gets good swings off him (though he was only 2-for-8) and he was trying to pitch to the outer half of the plate without risking a walk.
Piniella had a simpler explanation: "He got behind and then he got whacked."
Colome made another huge mistake later in the inning, though it didn't lead to a run, somehow not noticing that 220-pound catcher Doug Mirabelli was stealing second, then throwing into centerfield when he did.
"I don't know how they didn't see him," Sox manager Terry Francona said, "because I felt him."
For the Rays, the momentum of a 9-4 homestand and a weekend sweep of the Angels is gone. They've lost three straight and can't seem to do anything about it.
"We've scored six runs three nights in a row and haven't won a ballgame," Piniella said. "It means they're scoring a few more off us."
