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Little offense and a bullpen meltdown sabotage starter's strong work in Indians' 10-3 win.
By BRUCE LOWITT
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 7, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Bryan Rekar pitched well enough to win.
Okay, he pitched well enough to win with most other teams. Problem is, he was pitching Sunday for the Rays, and, no offense, giving up one Cleveland run on five hits in seven innings just doesn't cut it.
No offense, indeed. When Rekar left, the Rays also had one run on five hits off Indians starter Chuck Finley in seven innings.
It took Doug Creek and Ryan Rupe, the latter making his first relief appearance as a pro, five batters to unravel everything Rekar had woven before an announced 19,511. By the time the Indians finished their six-run eighth inning, they were cruising to a 10-3 victory.
"It's tough to lose when you play so well and (Rekar) pitched so well and everything gets away from you at the end," Rays manager Hal McRae said.
And the losses just keep on coming.
The Rays have dropped three in a row and six of their past seven. They have been swept in three-game series three times this season, 23 times in their three-plus seasons. And they are particularly dreadful against Cleveland. Tampa Bay is 9-23 against the Indians, their worst record against any American League team.
For the winless Rekar, it was a typical game: virtually no support. The Rays have scored 1.30 runs per nine innings in his seven starts. The 1-0 lead given to him in the second on Vinny Castilla's home run was only the second time all season he has had a lead with which to work. The first time, when the Rays led Baltimore 3-0 in the first inning April 15, Rekar left after five innings with the score tied, and he wasn't around to claim the W in the 7-4 win.
"Great game until the eighth inning, huh?" McRae said. "I thought Rekar had his best stuff, pitched his best game."
Rekar matched his longest stint of the season. McRae said Rekar wanted to stay in the game, and Rekar said the same, "but before the game I know I wouldn't send him through the middle of the (Indians) lineup a third time," McRae said. "Most days I won't send the starter back through the middle (a third time). Not a tough middle ... especially when your starters are not guys that traditionally go eight, nine innings."
But that was Rekar's mind-set.
"Every time I take the mound I have the mentality where I want to go nine," he said. "I thought I was doing a decent job. I could go longer. I could have continued, but it's not my decision."
The plan was by the book. Bring in Creek, a left-hander, to force switch-hitters Omar Vizquel and Roberto Alomar to bat right-handed, "to get them further away from first base, which I didn't accomplish," McRae said. Then bring in the right-handed Rupe to face righty Juan Gonzalez.
Bad plan. Or at least, poorly executed.
Vizquel walked and Alomar doubled to the leftfield corner. Creek stuck around to intentionally walk Gonzalez and strike out left-handed Jim Thome.
"The bases were loaded before I blinked my damn eyes," Creek said. "Vizquel, you can't walk him. You've got to make him earn his way on."
In came starter-turned-reliever Rupe, with the bases loaded. "It's tough," Creek admitted, "but break him in hard, he'll run hard. Throw him right in there."
Rupe had no problem with the decision. "To be honest, I wanted to come into that situation the first time out," he said. "I wanted to get my feet wet as quick as possible, and this was a good situation for it. But I was just horrible, absolutely horrible."
With no room for error, Rupe fell behind early in the count several times. "As a reliever you don't pitch; you throw strikes," McRae said. "He has to learn to let it rip."
It was Cleveland that did the ripping. Marty Cordova's two-run double broke the 1-1 tie. Three batters later, Einar Diaz hit a two-run single. "I apologize for (Rupe)," McRae said. "I told him to chalk this up to me."
The Rays, trailing 7-1, started their half of the eighth against Indians reliever Paul Shuey the same way Cleveland had against Creek, loading the bases with nobody out. Then Greg Vaughn struck out, just as Thome had.
There the similarity ended. All the Rays got out of it was Fred McGriff's sacrifice fly. "Those missed opportunities hurt," McRae said. "Getting hits is difficult. ... We have to get those runners across the plate."