Rays/MLB

Losses, injuries keep on piling up

JAYS 4, RAYS 3: The team holds its breath as cleanup hitter Greg Norton strains a hamstring.

By DAMIAN CRISTODERO
Published August 16, 2006

	[Times photo: James Borchuck]
	Ben Zobrist reacts after making the final out. The rookie shortstop struck out against B.J. Ryan with a runner on first.

ST. PETERSBURG - Give Greg Norton credit for not losing his sense of humor.

Given the circumstances in which the Devil Rays and their rightfielder find themselves after Tuesday night's 4-3 loss to the Blue Jays at Tropicana Field, it is about all they have left.

As if Tampa Bay's seventh straight defeat, which tied its season-worst streak, wasn't enough. Norton, hitting so well he had worked himself into the cleanup spot, is out with a strained left hamstring.

How serious it is, and whether the Rays need to call up a player from Triple-A Durham, won't be known until today when Norton is evaluated. It is the same hamstring Norton injured in March and kept him from making the team out of spring training.

Hence the joke.

"I'm not fast enough to pull muscles," Norton said. "I don't know how I did this."

But seriously ... Norton said he felt the twinge in the fifth inning running after Lyle Overbay's long foul ball. He stayed in the game to hit in the sixth and ripped a line drive that Overbay at first caught and turned into a double play.

That was it for Norton, who hit his 10th home run, a two-run shot, in the first inning and is batting .383 (18-for-47) with four home runs and nine RBIs in 13 August games.

Said manager Joe Maddon of a lineup already without Aubrey Huff and Julio Lugo because of trades, Ty Wigginton because of a broken left hand and is in constant fear of Rocco Baldelli's sore right hamstring: "You just put your finger in the dike and keep moving."

The Rays, a majors' worst 8-22 since the All-Star break and, at 47-72, a season-worst 25 games under .500, will have a hard time if it keeps wasting decent pitching.

Starter Jae Seo went seven innings and allowed two runs and was more than a match for Toronto's Roy Halladay, who also went seven and became the majors' first 15-game winner.

The difference was the supporting cast.

Rays reliever Brian Meadows allowed two runs on three hits in the eighth inning as Toronto took a 4-2 lead. It didn't help that Baldelli misplayed Overbay's leadoff single, allowing him to get to second.

"I was just trying to cut it off and get it in quick," Baldelli said. "I got it on the short hop and it kind of kicked up on me. It didn't take a bad hop on me. I should have been able to get it in."

And though Baldelli's run-scoring single in the eighth cut the deficit to one, Toronto reliever Brandon League got the final two outs of the inning with the tying run on second, and closer B.J. Ryan struck out three in the ninth for his 27th save.

"It's the same old story," Maddon said. "We've played so many good games that have come down to these moments."

After the game, Norton compared moments and said he believed the injury he sustained in March was worse.

Of that injury, which occurred running to first base, he said, "It grabbed and stayed with me."

Tuesday's, he said, "grabbed and released."

Norton said he doesn't have pain when he walks. He said he is to blame for the injury because Monday he did not hydrate properly.

"I didn't drink enough water on the off day," he said. "Too many cups of coffee. The key is to come in (today) and get the treatment."

Norton said even if he is sore he might be able to wrap the leg and play.

This time, he wasn't kidding.

[Last modified August 16, 2006, 01:37:49]