Opportunity botched

The Rays take a 3-0 lead but their offense wilts and bullpen fizzles in a 4-3 loss to the Yanks.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 10, 2000

NEW YORK -- They have lost games on errors, on home runs, on bad bounces and bad plays. Tuesday, the Devil Rays experienced a new kind of agony. They lost 4-3 to the Yankees when Jim Morris walked in the winning run in the 10th inning.

"It's just unbelievable," Greg Vaughn said. "That describes it. Unbelievable."

For the most part, the Devil Rays played well. Esteban Yan was strong throughout his seven innings and Rick White was solid in relief. The offense managed three runs against David Cone, though a couple of wasted opportunities proved costly. And they made a handful of snazzy defensive plays.

Still, they were beaten again.

The loss was the Rays' third in a row and dropped them 10 games worse than .500 and 111/2 behind the Yankees. Last year, they didn't fall that far back until the second week of June.

"I've had enough," Vaughn said. "We need to start finding a way, hopefully, to turn this thing around. The talent's here. We've just got to do it."

So what's the problem?

"I'm taking the fifth," Vaughn said. "We lose together, we win together. The problem is us. That's the problem. The problem is all of us in this room. It's not one person's fault. It's all of us."

It was the Rays' seventh walk-off loss of the season, and the 13th of their 32 games to be decided in the final inning.

[AP photo] Jim Morris walks off the field after walking in the winning run against the Yankees.

The winning rally started when Scott Brosius drew a one-out walk from White. Chuck Knoblauch blooped a soft shot down the rightfield line that bounced into the stands for a ground-rule double. Derek Jeter was intentionally walked to load the bases.

That brought left-handed-hitting Paul O'Neill to the plate and Morris to the mound for the toughest assignment of his 21-game major-league career. "I think that's pretty tight," he said. "World champs, bases loaded, 10th inning, one out." A sweltering Bronx night and a loud Yankee Stadium crowd didn't make it any easier.

Morris first tried his slider, but missed twice. He then went to the fastball, but was inside with ball three and high with ball four.

"I came in to get a lefty out and I didn't do it," Morris said. "It's my fault. And it's a shame because Este and Whitey threw really well."

"It's one of those situations where you either make pitches or you don't," manager Larry Rothschild said. "I know he'd like to make him put it in play because it gives you a chance."

The Rays figured their best chance was a double play. That's why they walked Jeter, who hasn't had a hit in three games and is in a 5-for-33 slump, and opted to have Morris, who had allowed three hits and four walks in 22 appearances against left-handers, face O'Neill.

"I could have tried to pitch to Jeter but you know he's going to put it in play and you're going to have the infield in and any kind of fly ball is going to beat you," Rothschild said. "At least with O'Neill I had a chance with a hard-hit ball on the ground to get a double play."

You can argue that the Rays shouldn't have been in that situation.

Despite taking an early 3-0 lead, which featured Vaughn's 10th homer, they wasted several opportunities to add on, seemingly a nightly occurrence. Fred McGriff, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games, made it to third with one out in the fourth but got no further. They were no more productive in the fifth, wasting Gerald Williams' one-out double, or the seventh, when two singles were wiped out by Williams' inning-ending double play.

Knoblauch, who hadn't played in a week because of a sore left hand, fought off a good pitch and blooped a soft fly just inside the rightfield line for what was the key hit. "As I was running in I was saying, "Oh no,' " rightfielder Dave Martinez said. "Then I was screaming, "Go foul! Go foul!' "

And if the bullpen wasn't shorthanded because of Roberto Hernandez's injury, Albie Lopez likely would have been available (rather than being held back to preserve a potential lead) and White may not have had to come out for a third inning.

"You hate to lose a game like that," White said. "We played a good ballgame. We just lost."

Yan did well, working into the seventh inning for the third start in a row. His two big mistakes were high fastballs, one Shane Spencer hit for a two-run homer in the fifth, and one Jorge Posada, on a 12-for-17 tear, ripped for a game-tying homer in the seventh. "I tried to do my best," Yan said. "Nobody's perfect."

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