Rallying Rays keep climbing in East

Big blasts with aggressive baserunning produce a 9-7 win and a tie for fourth.

By MARC TOPKIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 25, 2000

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Devil Rays beat the Rangers with some hustle and some muscle Saturday night.

The Rays scratched for their first three runs, overcame a poor start by Bryan Rekar and some defensive lapses, then hit three solo homers en route to a hard-fought 9-7 win.

For those keeping track, the victory carried some significance. Besides extending their season-best run to 14-8 and guaranteeing a fifth win in their last five series, the win -- technically, anyway -- got the Rays out of fifth place. At 30-42, they are tied with Baltimore for fourth place, the first time they haven't been fifth since April 18.

The good things were obvious: aggressive baserunning; home runs by Jose Guillen, Mike DiFelice and Fred McGriff, who had four hits; some key outs by middle reliever Doug Creek.

But so were some of the bad: Rekar struggling through four innings; Guillen dropping a fly ball; Mark Guthrie giving up a game-tying homer to Dave Martinez; McGriff possibly foiling a play at the plate by cutting off a throw.

"Early in the year those mistakes would have cost us," closer Roberto Hernandez said. "But right not this team has confidence we're going to score. That's the difference."

The game went back-and-forth, entertaining an announced crowd of 48,256, the second-largest regular-season gathering in stadium history.

The Rays took an early 3-2 lead. The Rangers went up 4-3. The Rays went back ahead 5-4. The Rangers tied it when Martinez homered in the seventh off Guthrie, the left-handed reliever for whom he was traded to the Cubs.

The Rays scored four runs in the eighth on a collection of hits and Texas mistakes. And the Rangers closed to within 9-7 when Rafael Palmeiro homered in the ninth.

"Just another American League game," manager Larry Rothschild said.

"Slow, long (3:36) and boring," Hernandez said, "and exciting at the end because we won."

McGriff had his first four-hit game of the season, extending his domination of Texas starter Ryan Glynn to 7-for-7 with singles in his first three at-bats. Felix Martinez also had four hits.

The Rays hustled their way to three early runs. Bubba Trammell reached on a two-out throwing error in the first and went first-to-third to set up the first run. Guillen forced a throwing error that led to a second-inning run by going in hard to second on a force play. Even McGriff got into it, scoring from second on a third-inning Bobby Smith single.

"We should have won that game from the beginning," said Rick White, the winner in relief.

Rekar left his previous start because of back stiffness, but he told the Rays on Friday he felt good enough to pitch Saturday. Maybe he should have waited a few days.

Rekar was neither sharp nor effective, requiring 82 pitches to get through four innings, and that was without walking a batter. Rekar allowed seven hits, including two home runs.

Royce Clayton hit a two-out shot in the second and Frank Catalanotto went to rightfield with an upper-deck blast in the third.

The Rangers' next two runs were a bit more complicated. Martinez blooped a single to left and Bill Haselman brought him home with a double to right-center. Scarborough Green singled hard to center and the Rays looked to have a play at the plate, but McGriff cut off the throw, allowing Haselman to score and put Texas up 4-3.

The Rays came back and tied the score in the sixth. Guillen, dropped from the lineup Friday as the result of a 2-for-17 slump, homered to right with one out.

Whatever good Guillen felt didn't last, since the Rays were fortunate not to be behind after an embarrassing defensive mistake in the sixth. Haselman hit what appeared to be a routine fly to right-center, but the Rays didn't treat it that way.

Guillen tracked the ball from right and was plainly calling for it, but Gerald Williams drifted over as well. Guillen followed through and attempted to make the catch, but clearly sensed Williams' presence and backed off at the last moment, the ball glancing off his glove for a two-base error.

It looked as if the Rangers were going to take advantage when Creek walked Clayton and Green bunted both runners up a base. But Creek struck out Luis Alicea, made more trouble for himself by walking pinch-hitter Chad Curtis to load the bases, and escaped when Rusty Greer flied to right.

McGriff put the Rays up 5-4 with his 15th homer of the season, a one-out blast into the rightfield seats, capping his first four-hit game of the season.

The Rangers came back to tie when Martinez went deep against Guthrie, who had allowed left-handers just five hits in 30 at-bats.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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