Rays get whiff of victory vs. Pedro

Pedro Martinez strikes out 17, but Steve Trachsel shuts down the Red Sox and Greg Vaughn, who had struck out three times, has the winning RBI in a 1-0 victory.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 7, 2000

BOSTON -- Batter after batter, they turned and trudged back to the dugout. Six Devil Rays were struck out by Pedro Martinez in the first two innings. Nine through four. Fifteen through seven. Seventeen in all.

On the Tampa Bay bench, they stopped comparing strategies and started to commiserate. "By that time, everyone sees," Greg Vaughn said. "Changeup, fastball, slider. Everyone's coming back with their own description of his pitches. He's electric. Total command of everything. There's not much to talk about."

But as the game unfolded, the Devil Rays still had hope. They had Steve Trachsel on the mound matching Martinez, if not pitch-for-pitch, then zero-for-zero. And by the end of the chilly New England afternoon, there was a most unlikely outcome, the Rays scoring a thrilling 1-0 victory over the league's best pitcher.

"Pedro early on, dominating the way he was, if we give up a few runs, that game is over," catcher John Flaherty said. "Not that you just throw in the towel, but mentally you just get beaten down seeing all those strikeouts and you're saying, "How the hell are we going to get this guy?'

"But Trachsel was keeping us in the game. And all of a sudden you get late in the game and you start believing maybe something good will happen. Maybe he'll make a mistake. And it happened."

It happened because Dave Martinez singled hard to right with two outs in the eighth, then stole second on a 2-and-2 pitch to Vaughn, sliding around the tag. Martinez had the steal sign from manager Larry Rothschild a pitch earlier, but gambled by waiting until he could get a better jump.

Then Vaughn, who had struck out in his first three at-bats on nine pitches, took a ball to work the count full, then fouled off a pitch. Pedro Martinez came next with a breaking ball, and Vaughn lined it to left-center to score the game's only run.

"Strictly survival," Vaughn said. "I was just trying to get the bat on the ball. That's all I was trying to do."

Said Pedro Martinez: "He's just a good hitter. I had already gotten him three times, didn't I? It's about time he did something."

Dave Martinez scored easily. "(Third-base coach) Billy Hatcher wasn't going to stop me," he said. "You don't get that many chances against Pedro."

Considering that Vaughn nearly was scratched from the lineup because of a sore left groin, it turned out to be a pretty good day. Saturday's heroics marked the seventh time this season he has either tied the score or put the Rays ahead after the seventh inning.

"Greg Vaughn, in my opinion, showed the competitor that he is today," Flaherty said. "He punched out a couple times and yet there probably wasn't anybody I wanted up at that plate more at that moment. You know he's going to find a way to step it up and get it done. He got one pitch to hit that whole at-bat and he took advantage of it. He's a gamer."

"It tells you what perseverance does for you," Rothschild said. "He may have looked bad (in his earlier at-bats) and other guys may have just shut it down a little bit and got disappointed in their performance, but he battles every pitch, every at-bat. That's why on a number of occasions this year he's come up with big hits.

"He's not going to quit on you no matter what the conditions are, no matter who he's facing, no matter what the game is. He's out there for one thing and that's to win a ballgame."

Against Martinez, that is a significant accomplishment. The lithe right-hander was 5-0 this season, having won 13 straight (including the post-season) since his last loss on Aug. 19. Before that, his last loss was to the Rays on July 7.

Saturday, he was awesome. Rothschild put his effort in the same class with no-hitters by Al Leiter and Kevin Brown. "That's as good a game as you're going to see anybody pitch," he said. "It wasn't anything but three pitches he could throw any time he wanted to and any place he wanted to."

Flaherty offered an interesting perspective from his first at-bat, which resulted in a single: "He threw me four fastballs in the outside part of the plate to get to a 2-and-2 count and I don't think I could hit any of them."

"He was nasty," Jose Canseco said. "I've never seen a pitcher with that much control. Every pitch was in an ideal spot. What you have to understand is that Pedro is going to make everyone look silly."

Trachsel, however, returned the favor. He doesn't throw as hard as Martinez (low 90s versus high 90s) or with as much precision, but the results were just as impressive. And the bottle of champagne waiting at his locker was an appropriate reward.

He allowed just three singles, struck out a career-high 11, pitched out of what trouble he got into with three walks, survived a Fred McGriff error, and -- most important -- never relinquished control. "Steve Trachsel was the MVP today," Dave Martinez said.

Trachsel's most effective weapon was variety, as he mixed pitches and location.

"From my perspective, it just didn't look like they knew what he was going to do to them," Flaherty said. "When they were looking away, he'd pop them in. When they were looking in, he'd throw a good split-finger. He had them off-balance all day."

As the game evolved into a pitchers' duel, Trachsel said he made it a point to not pay attention. He could tell the Rays were striking out a lot by the tone of the dugout chatter, but swears he wasn't watching Martinez:

"I'm just trying to go pitch to pitch, out to out and put innings together more than anything."

His plan worked marvelously at sold-out Fenway Park.

"It's as good as it gets," Rothschild said. "You can't pitch any better than he pitched -- unless you're Pedro."

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