Thrown for a loop

Upton's misplayed ball in centerfield sparks the Yankees' rally.

By EDUARDO A. ENCINA
Published July 16, 2007

New York Yankees catcher Wil Nieves, 26, tags out Tampa Bay Devil Rays runner B.J. Upton after he tried to score from second base on a single by teammate Ty Wigginton during the third inning of a baseball game.
	[AP Photo]

ST. PETERSBURG - B.J. Upton drifted to his left, thinking the line drive off Yankees first baseman Andy Phillips' bat would be a routine play.

Then something happened. There were many witnesses - a record crowd of 36,048 at Tropicana Field - but few could explain it. The Rays' still-learning centerfielder zigged and the ball zagged, hooking to his right at the last second. He stopped, instinctively lunging with his glove, but the ball flew past him and to the fence.

Until that point Sunday - with one on and no outs in the fifth inning - starter Edwin Jackson had tamed the big-money bats, limiting the Yankees to three singles. But that play opened the door for the opportunistic ballclub, which rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Rays 7-6.

"At the last minute it looked like a sudden wind change, and there's no wind in the dome," Jackson said, "so how it happened like that I had no clue."

Said Upton: "I've never seen anything like it."

Phillips' run-scoring triple keyed a four-run inning and changed the pace of the game.

"It always seems like every time Jackson's got a good game going, the ball seems to find me and I mess it up for him somehow," Upton, 22, said. "I don't know. It was tough to swallow."

On a day when he saw either a baserunner thrown out, a runner stranded on third or a batter hit into a double play (four for the game) each inning, manager Joe Maddon said the density of increasingly popular maple bats is causing balls to dance in the air.

"It was the product of the bat," said Maddon, whose team lost its 16th of its past 18. "When you watch from behind home plate, line drives hit off maple bats, you get like almost this left turn. I think it's from the lack of spin actually because the bat's so hard."

Maddon used the opportunity to point out the dangers of maple bats, which he says break more frequently, spraying wood around the infield, before adding: "That was not his fault. I'm telling you, just watch the way the ball reacted. The ball just made a left turn, almost like a slider."

Maple bats or not, the Rays (35-56) - who rattled out 16 hits - had their opportunities to split the four-game series.

They jumped on starter Mike Mussina early - five of their first six batters reached as the Rays took a 2-0 first-inning lead - and took a 5-4 lead in the seventh on Carlos Pena's two-run homer (his team-high 22nd). But they couldn't hold it as New York batted around in the eighth, scoring three off three relievers.

Rays baserunners were thrown out four times either trying for extra bases or getting caught off the base, the most costly in the eighth. Ty Wigginton's run-scoring single cut the lead to 7-6, but pinch-runner Josh Wilson was doubled off second when Phillips caught Dioner Navarro's line drive.

Akinori Iwamura singled off closer Mariano Rivera and Carl Crawford reached on a catcher's interference to open the ninth, but Brendan Harris - whose day included getting tagged out after overrunning second in the first inning - couldn't get down a bunt and grounded into a third-to-first double play. Rivera then retired Pena.

New York (45-44) moved above .500 for the first time since June 22 and cut Boston's lead to nine in the East, the first time it has been within single digits since June 19.

[Last modified July 16, 2007, 00:26:19]