Rays get hit by Tino

The Tampa native slugs a three-run homer off his hometown friend Dwight Gooden to carry the Yankees.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 9, 2000

NEW YORK -- Monday had the potential to be something special. Dwight Gooden coming back to New York, returning to the scene of his greatest individual accomplishment, pitching before the fans that for so long adored him.

Instead, it was just another night for the Devil Rays. Another one of those nights, a frustrating 6-3 loss to the Yankees.

A night when they didn't get good starting pitching, Gooden failing to survive the fifth. Where they failed to take advantage of their scoring opportunities, two bases-loaded situations converted into two runs. Where the frustration of their miserable 11-20 start again seeped out, manager Larry Rothschild getting ejected for the second time in a week.

And this one could have ramifications. General manager Chuck LaMar met with Rothschild and coaches behind closed doors for 30 minutes after the game, prompting speculation of a possible roster move today.

While the theme of the night was Gooden's homecoming, it was another of Tampa's homegrown stars, Tino Martinez, who caused the Rays the most trouble.

Martinez, who came along three years behind Gooden on Tampa's ballfields, hit a three-run homer off Gooden in the first inning, then made a sharp stop to start a double play that killed a bases-loaded rally in the sixth.

"It's exciting facing Doc," Martinez said. "We happened to get him tonight. He was falling behind hitters and I don't care who you are. If you fall behind, you have to come back with something over the plate and you're going to get hurt."

Gooden spent 13 seasons in New York, 11 with the Mets and two with the Yankees, enough that he considered the city his second home. While his glory days were at Shea Stadium, he had his share of special moments in the Bronx, too, throwing a no-hitter at Yankee Stadium on May 14, 1996, and celebrating a World Series championship there later that year.

But before Monday, he never had pitched in New York as a visitor. He said he felt good during the day, excited, but not overly so, and extremely confident.

"Obviously I wanted to win," he said. "I was talking to (coach) Bill Russell before the game. He was on the phone with his wife and she's in Las Vegas with his mother-in-law and he said, "Should she bet on me tonight?,' and I said, "Yeah, it's guaranteed.' So, hopefully, she didn't listen.

"The main thing was to come out and want to have a good game. I faced them in the spring when I was with Houston and pitched pretty well against them. Obviously I know their hitters so I had a good game plan going in. But I fell behind with some guys, there were some walks, and this time the long ball hurt me."

After Martinez put the Yankees up 3-0, homering into the upper deck in his first regular-season at-bat against Gooden, the Rays scrapped back to tie. But No. 9 hitter Clay Bellinger opened the fifth with a homer to center, and Paul O'Neill added a two-run homer three hitters later. Gooden, carried off the field after his no-hitter in '96, walked off with his head down this time.

Basically, the 35-year-old right-hander was pitching without his good slider, and that was a problem. He threw 33 pitches in the first, and the Yankees didn't once swing and miss. Of the 81 he threw in the game, 39 were called balls. "It's as simple as his slider wasn't the same tonight," Rothschild said. "It's a pitch that's been an excellent pitch for him. He didn't have all his weapons tonight."

The Rays offense, though, was very much the same: inefficient and unproductive. They had 11 baserunners and scored just three runs.

They loaded the bases in the second on three singles, unable to score because of Jose Canseco's limited baserunning abilities. Then they had to trade outs for runs and got only two, one on Bubba Trammell's infield grounder and the other on a sacrifice fly by Mike DiFelice.

Down 6-3 in the sixth, the Rays fought back again, loading the bases with one out. But Martinez made a diving backhanded stop of a DiFelice smash, starting a 3-6-1 double play that ended the inning. "I was running as hard as I could, but my legs weren't going anywhere," DiFelice said. "A couple inches either way we probably score a couple of runs."

And any chance they had the next inning ended when Ricky Ledee crashed into the leftfield wall to corral Miguel Cairo's line drive.

Rothschild was ejected for arguing a called second strike on Kevin Stocker in the seventh. The surprise was he never left the dugout when home plate umpire Wally Bell turned and ejected him.

"I just don't think it's right that without some kind of warning or whatever that you throw people out from the dugout, but he has a right to do it because I did argue balls and strikes," he said.

Rothschild then made a show of it, going face-to-face with Bell for about 90 seconds. It was Rothschild's 11th career ejection and second in seven days.

At 11-20, the Rays dropped to a season-low nine games under .500. Something, it would seem, has to change.

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