A gem of an encore

First Pedro Martinez; now Orlando Hernandez falls to Steve Trachsel and the Rays 1-0.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 12, 2000

NEW YORK -- After he pitched a complete-game gem to beat Boston and ace Pedro Martinez on Saturday, Steve Trachsel shrugged when asked about his next start and said he didn't do encores.

Thursday at Yankee Stadium, he came pretty darn close.

Trachsel again was brilliant, pitching seven scoreless innings as the Devil Rays scored another 1-0 victory, this time over the Yankees and their ace, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez.

"Once again, Trachsel came up big for us," said Fred McGriff, whose seventh-inning homer accounted for the only run. "Last week Pedro and this week El Duque. I guess we just have to keep letting him face the other teams' aces."

Albie Lopez worked the final two innings for his first save as the Rays won their third 1-0 game of the season (there have been only five in the American League) and recorded their major-league-leading fifth shutout.

[AP photo] Rays starter Steve Trachsel extends his scoreless innings streak to 17 with seven in New York.

It put a good ending on 2-4 road trip and was a welcome boost for a team that is struggling with a 12-21 record.

"One of these days one of these games is going to get us going," manager Larry Rothschild said. "Hopefully, it's this one."

At a time when the Rays are desperate for even decent starting pitching, Trachsel has been tremendous. He may not have been quite as sharp Thursday as he was in his three-hit, 11-strikeout 1-0 win in Boston, but he was close.

He retired the first eight, allowed three hits and two walks and pitched out of his only real jam by retiring Yankees star Bernie Williams on a groundout with men on first and third in the sixth.

Going back to the final inning of his April 30 start in Anaheim, Trachsel has a 17-inning scoreless streak, matching Detroit's Hideo Nomo for the American League season high. (Cincinnati's Denny Neagle had a 21-inning stretch.)

Trachsel says he isn't doing anything different, just doing things correctly. He likes to remain in a routine, and Wednesday's postponement allowed him to pitch Thursday on his regularly scheduled fifth day. He has had outstanding control and command of his fastball, spotting it on both sides of the plate and using it to set up his curveball and a few well-timed split-finger pitches while staying aggressive.

"Just a continuation of what I did the last game and a few innings in the game before that," Trachsel said. "Nothing special. I'm just locating my fastball real well and working my other pitches off that."

Trachsel didn't allow a hit until Williams singled to center with two outs in the fourth, then retired the next five before getting into, and out of, his first real jam.

Chuck Knoblauch started the sixth-inning uprising, slicing a one-out double down the rightfield line. Greg Vaughn then made a huge defensive play, racing back and leaping with his glove extended above the leftfield wall to rob Clay Bellinger with a spectacular catch. "It was over," Vaughn said.

"I thought it was gone," Trachsel said. "That's the first time in my career I've ever got a home run brought back. In Wrigley (Field), the walls are 15 feet high, and most of the other ones are way back. Couldn't have picked a better time."

McGriff then made another key defensive play, blocking a bounced throw from Vinny Castilla to keep Knoblauch at third. That brought Williams to the plate and stirred the Yankee Stadium crowd of 14,292, but Trachsel got him to ground out to second.

With one out in the seventh, McGriff hit a 2-and-1 Hernandez fast ball on a line over the right-centerfield fence, extending his hitting streak to 12 games.

Despite the steady production, McGriff had been suffering through a power shortage. After hitting a grand slam on Opening Day, he went 51 at-bats before homering twice in a three at-bat span April 22. He then went 66 more homerless at-bats until Thursday's homer.

"I only know I haven't hit a homer when you tell me," McGriff said. "The first couple weeks I wasn't swinging the bat real well. The last two, three weeks, I've been swinging pretty good, I've just been hitting a lot of line drives right at people."

After the seventh, Rothschild asked Trachsel how he was feeling. Trachsel, who'd thrown 104 pitches, said he was getting close to being done. "At that point, I don't have much choice," Rothschild said.

He brought in Lopez, who worked a 1-2-3 eighth and survived a jittery ninth. Paul O'Neill smacked a leadoff single, and Williams drove a ball to deep right that Dave Martinez flagged down in front of the wall. Lopez then got Tino Martinez on a lineout and red-hot Jorge Posada on a game-ending grounder.

"The ninth inning's a whole different animal," Lopez said. "I took it like any other inning and said I had to get three outs. When the ball Bernie hit stayed in the park, I figured I can't lose now."

For the Rays and for Trachsel, it was good enough. "He's answered the challenge and he's on a good run," catcher John Flaherty said. "Now maybe we can score him some runs. These 1-0 games are not getting it done. Well, they are getting it done. But they're giving me a heart attack. I have enough gray hairs."

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