Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Tampa Bay starter Ryan Rupe shuts down the Yankees for a 4-0 lead after five innings, but New York's sluggers lead the rally for a 5-4 win.
By MARC TOPKIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 1, 2001
NEW YORK -- Hal McRae and his wife, Jo, were headed to see The Lion King on Saturday night on Broadway. Maybe with the help of the enchanting Disney musical, he'll be able to forget the horrible ending of his team's 5-4 loss in a matinee performance at Yankee Stadium.
Hakuna Matata.
Thing was, everything had been working for the Rays. They got ahead of the Yankees 4-0 early. Ryan Rupe was dominating into the sixth. Travis Phelps carried a 4-3 lead into the eighth.
And then all the good came to a stunning halt.
First, ex-Ray Gerald Williams, he of the .261 on-base percentage and 13 walks in 252 Tampa Bay plate appearances, drew a five-pitch free pass from Doug Creek. Red-hot Bernie Williams, he of the six consecutive multi-hit games, crushed a 2-2 pitch from Creek into the leftfield seats.
Scholars can decide which was a more impressive feat.
"You spend three hours winning the game," Creek said, "and then it takes two minutes to lose it."
The home run by Bernie Williams, his second of the day, was obviously the painful blow. "He's the guy you can't let beat you, and he did today," Creek said. "I was in a position where I had to come right at him, and he got me."
But the walk to Gerald Williams, who hadn't batted in a game since June 17, probably hurt more. "I let him get away from me," Creek said. "He doesn't walk much. He hasn't. He's been over here a few days, I don't know if he's adopted a new hitting philosophy."
Even as Gerald Williams was strolling to the plate in his first Yankee appearance as a pinch-hitter for Paul O'Neill, McRae said he liked his team's chances.
The Rays had tagged Ted Lilly, the weakest link in the Yankees rotation, for four runs -- two on a double by Russ Johnson -- and knocked the rookie left-hander out in the fourth, though they missed several chances to break the game open, leaving 11 on.
Rupe, coming off a brutal outing in Boston, roared through the first five innings in the sweltering heat, allowing one hit, before allowing three runs on back-to-back homers by Bernie Williams and Tampa's Tino Martinez, who went deep for the fourth time in five games.
Phelps, who gave up a grand slam in his previous outing, retired all six batters he faced, striking out Derek Jeter to open the eighth.
McRae then called for Creek, figuring the Rays had the advantage against Gerald Williams and wanting Creek, the veteran lefty, to face Bernie Williams as a right-handed batter and then the left-handed Martinez.
"If you draw it up, that's the way you'd like to draw it up," McRae said. "When Phelps struck out Jeter, I thought everything was falling in place. I thought that was the most important out, because it was the first out of the inning."
As hard as these losses are to take, the Rays are getting used to the lack of relief. Saturday's game was the fourth in six days that they've held a lead of at least four runs, and they've won only one.
"We just haven't been able to close the lid," McRae said.
"Yeah, it's frustrating," said Johnson, who had three hits. "But that's baseball. That's part of our deal. We've got to battle through that. When you're playing the Yankees, you've got to do the little things."
Despite the dramatic turn, which sent the Bat Day crowd of 42,544 into hysteria, the Rays came back with a chance to tie in the ninth against Mariano Rivera, putting men on first and third after one-out singles by Greg Vaughn and Fred McGriff.
Johnson, on his own, bunted toward first but it rolled foul. He changed his approach -- a decision he said he regretted -- and struck out. Ben Grieve, who left seven men on base for the day, flied to left for the final out.
"We didn't quit today," McRae said. "The guys are playing well, they're just not playing well enough to win as a group.
"We'll win more games if we continue to do it the way we're doing it. There were days when we had no chance, from an offensive standpoint and from a pitching point of view. The game was over in the third inning. So this is much better than that. If we're able to sustain what we're doing now, we're going to be okay. The opposition is not always going to catch up."
Hakuna Matata.