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Defense is sloppy, offense stalls in a 6-1 defeat that ties Rays for second-most losses ever at the break.
By MARC TOPKIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 9, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- The All-Star break came a day too late for the Rays.
Had the three-day hiatus started after Saturday's game, the Rays would have gone into the break buoyed by a meager winning streak rather than a clunker of a loss, 6-1 to Florida.
They would have been encouraged by how crisply they had played, rather than discouraged by a sloppy performance in Sunday's matinee before an announced 14,712 at the Trop.
And Greg Vaughn would have been healthy rather than hobbled by a strained right hamstring that will prevent him from playing in Tuesday's All-Star Game.
What a difference a day makes.
"It wasn't a good game for the home team," Rays manager Hal McRae said.
The Rays go into the break with a 27-61 record, the worst by an American League team since the 1996 Tigers. And they matched the 1962 Cubs for the second-most losses by the break, trailing only the 1962 Mets, who had lost 66 at the break on their way to a record 120 defeats.
As they did during many of the previous 60 losses, the Rays earned it. There were three errors, two of which led to runs. There was a foul ball that dropped between three Rays, leading to another run. There was a balk, a hit batter and a spotty offensive performance that generated four hits.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
According to McRae, the most grievous mistake of the day was the Rays' failure to execute a most basic play, cutting off a throw to the plate in the middle of the Florida's four-run second inning.
"I thought it was the difference in the game at that stage," McRae said.
The Marlins had men on first and second after a leadoff single by Kevin Millar and an error by third baseman Aubrey Huff, his 10th, on Derrek Lee's grounder.
Millar was clearly going to score on Ryan Thompson's single to left, especially when Jason Tyner made a late throw home. Because Huff was not in position to cut the throw off, the ball went through to the plate, allowing Lee to advance to third.
That put Marlins on first and third, which put the Rays and pitcher Joe Kennedy in a compromising situation. A groundball single by Mike Redmond and a groundball double by Alex Gonzalez produced two more runs, and a sacrifice fly by Luis Castillo stretched the Florida lead to 4-1.
"Huff cuts the ball, (shortstop) Felix (Martinez) goes to third, we've got runners on first and second and those balls to the right side, I think we make plays on, or we have a chance to make plays on," McRae said. "It appeared Kennedy gave up more than he actually gave up. If we do the things we're supposed to, that doesn't happen."
Otherwise, Kennedy, the 22-year-old left-hander, pitched rather well. He allowed two other hits, both singles, in working seven innings for the first time in his seven major-league starts.
"Besides the second inning, it went good," Kennedy said. "And I really didn't think it was that bad of an inning. They hit two balls on the ground through the infield, a blooper, they just found the holes that inning."
His teammates, meanwhile, couldn't do much against Marlins starter Ryan Dempster, especially as the game went on. They had all their hits in the first five innings and all, oddly, for extra bases.
They left men on second and third in the first, on second in the second, on second and third in the third. But their futility peaked in the fifth when Tyner, who was 8-for-14 in the three-game series, led off with a triple, but Steve Cox and Randy Winn struck out and Fred McGriff grounded out.
"I thought if we scored there," McRae said, "we were back in the ballgame."
McRae was asked if the Rays, who had won two straight after losing 16 of 20, needed the break. His answer sounded more like semantics than anything else.
"As far as us needing a break, no, we don't need a break," he said. "We're going to take it because it's given, but we don't need it." But the way most of the players were scurrying to get out of the clubhouse, it seemed like the first day of summer vacation.
"We lost," catcher Mike DiFelice said. "And we have three days off."