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A 5-4 win over Yanks ends an 8-game skid, gives Tampa Bay first win this season when trailing in the eighth.
By MIKE READLING
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 25, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- What looked like a Rays game destined to become just one in a long line of mounting losses, not to mention another reason to keep the 1962 Mets in close view, turned into one for the record books.
Travis Phelps got Derek Jeter to ground into a game-ending double play to earn his first major-league win as the Rays beat the Yankees 5-4 in front of an announced 27,999 at Tropicana Field on Sunday.
The win snapped an eight-game losing streak and prevented the Rays' third consecutive series sweep. It also was Tampa Bay's first win since June 14, and it allowed the Rays to avoid the worst homestand in team history. All this after Bryan Rekar loaded the bases and gave up two runs in the first.
And that wasn't even the most exciting part.
The Rays scored four in the eighth inning, courtesy of back-to-back doubles by Steve Cox and Randy Winn and back-to-back sacrifice flies from Mike DiFelice and Andy Sheets, who felt he had something to prove after getting picked off first Saturday during a one-run game.
Most importantly, the comeback allowed the Rays to revel in someone else's bullpen being the victim of late-game heroics and earned Tampa Bay its first win after trailing in the eighth inning in 45 tries this season.
"It feels good to play a good ballgame," manager Hal McRae said. "The rally in the eighth inning shows that we still have some fight."
Cox, who made consecutive starts for the first time since May 18-19 as Fred McGriff rested his strained hamstring, led off the eighth with a double off Yankees starter Ted Lilly.
Lilly immediately was relieved by Brian Boehringer, and Winn ripped his first pitch for a double to straightaway centerfield. Boehringer walked Greg Vaughn before Yankees manager Joe Torre called on Rays killer Mike Stanton to get out of the jam. On Saturday Stanton stranded the tying and go-ahead runs in the eighth inning and picked Sheets off first before he even threw a pitch.
But on Sunday Russ Johnson singled and Stanton hit Ben Grieve with the next pitch to load the bases with Tampa Bay trailing 4-3 with no outs.
Rather than have the struggling catcher bunt, McRae had DiFelice swing away. He answered with a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Vaughn.
"We haven't been able to hit fly balls with a runner on third base and less than two outs," McRae said. "Our failure to execute paid dividends today. We didn't bunt because we haven't been executing. The fact that we weren't getting it done probably was the reason we scored five runs."
Up next was Sheets, with the chance to drive in the go-ahead run and earn a little redemption. Both came when he lined a twister to centerfield, which Bernie Williams caught off balance, allowing Johnson to slide in safely at home.
"I had to make up for yesterday," Sheets said. "Yesterday was kind of tough to swallow, I had a little trouble sleeping last night. You want to do something good, especially after a bonehead play yesterday. But you don't want to overdo it. I just wanted something back up the middle, something hard, hopefully get it in the air like I did."
With the lead intact and the dugout buzzing with the thought of pulling out the team's 22nd win, it fell to Phelps to close the Yankees down in the ninth.
After a leadoff single, Phelps got Alfonso Soriano to fly out to center, then hit Chuck Knoblauch with a pitch. That brought up Jeter with the possible threat of Williams, Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada looming.
"I was hoping we'd turn the double play; I didn't want to face Bernie," Phelps said. "They can hurt you a lot when you get to the middle of their order. I wanted to make some good pitches to Jeter, and luckily we got the ground ball and they turned it."
As soon as the play was completed, Cox flipped the ball to Phelps, the former 89th-round draft pick, as a keepsake.
"It's awesome just to get my first win, much less against the Yankees," Phelps said. "You could feel the excitement in the dugout when we got a few hits there. We could feel it. To come out there and come from behind like that, that's got to give your team some momentum. Especially the way things have been going for us lately."