Rays/MLB

Good vibes coming off .500 trip

RAYS 5, BLUE JAYS 2: Scott Kazmir has a sterling start and banged-up Tampa Bay pulls out a road series win.

By MARC TOPKIN
Published April 10, 2006

	[AP photo]
	Joey Gathright, left, and Tomas Perez celebrate as they score on teammate Russell Branyan's ground-rule double against the Toronto on Sunday.

TORONTO - Given the events of a tumultuous first week, the Devil Rays were pleased to head home for tonight's Tropicana Field opener with a 3-3 record.

Given how they won Sunday 5-2, with a refreshingly strong pitching performance from Scott Kazmir and key hits from two players, Tomas Perez and Russell Branyan, who weren't on the roster a week ago, they feel confident even better things are ahead.

"After everything that's happened so far, we like the way we've positioned ourselves," leftfielder Carl Crawford said. "With all that said, we still end up the road trip .500, so we'll take that. It's nice to win a series on the road early, come back home for the home opener and see if we can gain momentum and get on a little winning streak."

Kazmir pitched better - much better - than in the opener, when he had little command and less success. He worked during the week with pitching coach Mike Butcher on two minor adjustments, and both seemed to make a major difference as he went a career-high 82/3 innings, throwing 119 pitches.

"Kaz pitched to both sides of the plate more effectively today, and had much better utilization of his changeup," manager Joe Maddon said. "He had nice rhythm the whole game. Nice tempo. He did a lot of nice things today. He pounded the strike zone basically, and he made two nice defensive plays. He had himself a nice day."

Erasing the memory of his brutal opening-day outing and beating Toronto ace Roy Halladay made it pretty good. The only thing that would have made it better would have been finishing what he started, but Maddon decided the 22-year-old had had enough, especially after back-to-back two-out singles in the ninth.

"One more out," Kazmir said. "Maybe next time."

The game was important for Kazmir, and the rest of the team - winning a series on the road, beating an ace, showing they could win without three frontline players.

"We need to get more games like this. It shows us we can compete, we can beat anyone," Kazmir said. "It feels like we're actually kind of jelling a little bit and it's getting fun. It feels like the end of 2005 right now. We're just having fun and letting it all hang out."

With shortstop Julio Lugo joining centerfielder Rocco Baldelli on the disabled list and second baseman Jorge Cantu still sidelined with a bruised left foot, the Rays didn't exactly start the lineup they envisioned against Halladay.

But it couldn't have worked out much better.

Branyan, who was sent to Triple A then promoted when Luis Ordaz was hurt in the opener, drove in the Rays' first run with a fourth-inning single, then had a bigger hit in the decisive eighth, a bases-loaded ground-rule double that scored two and put the Rays ahead to stay 4-2.

"It feels really good," Branyan said. "Just to help contribute to a win in a major-league game feels good."

Perez, the infielder who was signed Thursday when Lugo went on the DL, already had helped the Rays win two games with his defense. Sunday, his double set up Branyan's eighth-inning hit.

"That's pretty neat, isn't it?" Maddon said. "We're just fortunate. We thought we had some depth that we sent back to Triple A, and then you pick up a guy like Perez who we brought here based what we heard about him defensively, and he has shown that, and then he comes up and does the things offensively, too."

The Rays led 1-0, went down 2-1 and tied it when Travis Lee homered in the seventh. The go-ahead rally in the eighth didn't start well, with a tremendous play by Toronto third baseman Troy Glaus foiling a sacrifice bunt attempt, but they recovered. Perez doubled to put men on second and third and, after Crawford was intentionally walked, Branyan lashed his double to right. Jonny Gomes drove in the final run with a single.

Coming home with three players who weren't on the team when they left St. Petersburg April 2, coming home with Lugo and Cantu hurt and reliever Jesus Colome released, and still coming home with a .500 record after opening the season with two bad losses, is actually an accomplishment.

"We're very pleased," Maddon said. "To come back 3-3 off this road trip is very nice. We've had some obstacles to overcome to get to this point and our guys have responded really well, as I thought they would."

[Last modified April 10, 2006, 01:57:00]