Rays/MLB

Young ace delivers

By MARC TOPKIN
Published April 21, 2006

	[AP photos]
	Scott Kazmir, dragged into the Rays-Red Sox feud by Curt Schilling, comes home during his 52/3 superb innings, an outing cut short by cramps.
	Jonny Gomes rips a Julian Tavarez pitch over the seats atop the Green Monster in leftfield in the ninth, his second homer of the game.

BOSTON - Joe Maddon walked slowly to the mound, trying to delay what appeared, almost certainly, to be another cruel blow.

Scott Kazmir, the Devil Rays' young ace, was pitching a dazzling game Thursday against the Red Sox, and then he wasn't. Kazmir had walked off the mound, ominously shaking his prized left arm, and was quickly being attended to by trainer Ron Porterfield.

Maddon saw Porterfield rubbing Kazmir's forearm, was told it was a cramp and figured it was good news. Then he heard the problem actually was in Kazmir's thumb, and he didn't know what to think.

"His thumb cramped," Maddon said. "He had a thumb cramp. It must be from maybe too many video games growing up. But he had a thumb cramp, so it's kind of a weird thing. I'd never experienced a thumb cramp before. It just looked too strange, so we got him out."

Kazmir, from what the Rays said, is fine, though he will be further checked. And the night, it turns out, couldn't have gone much better.

Before leaving in the sixth, Kazmir delivered the kind of stirring performance the Rays expect to see for years to come. The offense found a way to do just enough against knuckleballing nemesis Tim Wakefield. Jonny Gomes added a pair of towering home runs for exclamation points. Relievers Travis Harper and Dan Miceli teamed, causing only minimal anxiety, for the final 10 outs.

And the Rays ended an eight-game losing streak at Fenway Park, disappointing a crowd of 36,607 that was the largest for a regular-season game there in 60 years with a 5-1 win over the Red Sox.

Kazmir said he had a similar problem once in high school and was not concerned. He took some medicine earlier this week to help fight a cold and figured that may have left him a bit dehydrated. Actually, he tried vehemently to convince Maddon he could stay in.

"Everything's fine," Kazmir said. "I knew what it was. I knew it was a cramp and everything because my thumb just locked up, right after I released the pitch. I was just trying to shake it off and maybe get through the inning. But as I threw those warmup pitches, I felt like maybe it would lock up again."

Unruffled by criticism earlier in the week from Boston's Curt Schilling, Kazmir responded with an outing befitting an ace. He allowed one run on four hits, walking one while striking out seven, and actually had an eighth had first-base umpire Ron Kulpa called what looked like strike three on Manny Ramirez's check swing. And despite Schilling's contentions that he doesn't know how to pitch inside, Kazmir said he paid no attention and showed it by using his fastball effectively on both sides of the plate. He didn't hit anyone.

"He's going to be special; he is special," Maddon said. "He was extremely calm today. I thought he responded to all the different little innuendoes very well today. He had a great look about him all day. He was very prepared for today mentally and (Schilling's comments) may have had something to do to spur him on, absolutely."

Just pitching in Fenway seems to do something for Kazmir, who admittedly enjoys the electric atmosphere. The Rays have won only four of their past 20 games in Boston, and Kazmir has won three of them, though he claims there are no secrets. "I don't know what it is," he said with a smile.

The Sox are trying to figure it out, too. "We are certainly going to have to," manager Terry Francona said. "I think he's 22, so he's probably not going to retire anytime soon,"

Wakefield, who came in with a stunning 13-1 record against the Rays, retired the first 10 batters, but the Rays (8-8) scratched out two runs on one hit, a Travis Lee double and a fluttering knuckler that eluded catcher Josh Bard.

The score was 2-1 until the seventh, when Gomes hit the first of two blasts over the advertising sign that sits above the fourth row of seats atop the 37-foot leftfield Green Monster, a shot unofficially estimated at 432 feet. He hit the other, a 417-footer, in the ninth. Harper, who retired his first eight batters, and Miceli did the rest, making the late-night flight to Texas a little more enjoyable, though they probably kept Kazmir away from the video games.

"Everything worked out good," Kazmir said.

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 01:43:05]